A Painted Dresser

Although I didn't blog much at all last year, I did work on several projects.  One was this dresser that had been sitting in my dining room for over a year.  Sitting there, looking just like this.

Horrible, right?  I didn't even bother cleaning it. Ug.  I think I'd planned to work on it much sooner, but I got pregnant and was too tired, and then had a baby, and was too tired.  Once I got Zoe on some kind of schedule, I decided it was time to do something with this ugly thing.   I went to my Pinterest furniture board to get some ideas.  At first, I wanted to do something like this.

  (pinned from here, but I believe Pottery Barn is the orig source)

When I first started working on furniture, I just painted everything black.  Frankly, I was tired of black at this point, and I wanted to step out of my comfort zone by adding a little color, but still needed something that would work with the look we have going on in the main living area. I started looking at some of the gray pieces I'd pinned and decided I'd go with a dark gray.  I know, I know, gray isn't much of a change from black, but it was a big step for me.

I chose two Martha Stewart colors called Anvil and Shale.  According to those links, it looks like the MS line is normally mixed in Glidden.  I get all of my paint color matched and mixed in Behr's Paint and Primer in One, which Home Depot also carries.  The Anvil was a little too dark for me so I ended up going with Shale.    I ended up doing two coats of paint before distressing with my orbital sander.  After finishing up with that, I had to decide on some new hardware.  I had a pack of oil-rubbed bronze knobs on hand, but they were too plain and didn't really go with the gray.  I headed out to Hobby Lobby to look through their awesome drawer and knob selection.  I found some really nice mustard knobs, but they only had three, and I needed ten.  I drove to a neighboring town to see if their Hobby Lobby had any, and luckily, they had plenty.  I'd have driven to every Hobby Lobby within a 50 mile radius, collecting knobs if I had to.  These were the ONLY knobs I wanted for this piece.  Once I had the knobs, I needed to decorate the top.  I figured we could use some other light source in the room, aside from the ceiling light, so I headed to Target to see what kind of lamps they had.  Can you believe they had a lamp in almost the exact same color as those knobs???  I love it when things work out like that!


Finally, here's my finished dresser.

It actually does look bluish-purple most of these time because of the natural light coming in the front window so I guess that makes it a little more peppy that just plain black.  I will say that the next furniture project I did was a bright green so I think it's safe to say that it didn't take me too long to get out of my color comfort zone!

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I haven't linked to anything is so long, I'm excited about this next part!

Linking to:
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Creek Cottage
Hookin' Up With HOH @ House of Hepworths
Inspiration Gallery @ Craftberry Bush
Inspire Me Please @ Liz Marie
Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed

Zoe's 1st Birthday - A Red & Aqua Birthday Party

Zoe turned one on February 16th.  If you are a parent, I know I don't have to tell you how fast that first year went by.  Man, what is it about having kids that makes time move at warp speed??

We went all out for girlie's first party.  We began planning the party about 6 months ahead of time.  Her Daddy was in charge of location, and I was in charge with decorations, of course!  We rented out a local restaurant that is, thankfully, closed on Saturdays, and treated our guests to lunch.  

I'd decided early on that I wanted a red and aqua theme because that's what I did for the nursery.  (I've joked with people that Zoe is destined for a life of red or Valentine-themed birthday parties.  I'm pretty sure she'll grow up hating the color, red.)  I started a board to collect some ideas, and got busy pinning.  

Since the bulk of our funds would be spent at the venue, I tried to make what decorations I could, and scrimp where I could.  I got some great stuff from the Target Dollar Spot since they were full of Valentine's Day stuff.  I also got some additional Valentine's Day party stuff from Party City.  Here's a rundown of what I ended up making.  I made the ribbon topiaries, the smash cake stand that you can't really see in this photo, the smash cake bunting, the wall bunting, the highchair skirt & Zoe's birthday pants.  Charles made the main cupcake stand using some stuff I got from Hobby Lobby.  I'll be doing a post on the smash cake stand, cake bunting and cupcake stand soon.

My neighbor, who is an excellent baker, made the cupcakes and the awesome 3-layer smash cake.  She did an wonderful job, and I couldn't have been happier with the way they turned out!  The color difference here is due to  the bad lighting in the section where we set up the dessert table.  Everything was spot on and matchy-matchy!

    Here's the birthday girl, amazed by her cake.

Here's the highchair skirt.

A close-up of a ribbon topiary.

 A close-up of the birthday pants.

Sources:
Birthday hat and bib are from Dainty Couture at Etsy.

Red metal cupcake stands are from Target's Valentine's Day collection.

Highchair skirt was made from this tutorial.

Ribbon topiaries were made from this tutorial.

Pattern for birthday pants is from Viola Lee at Etsy.

Invitations are from That Party Chick at Etsy.

Using Google Reverse Image Search

Don't you hate it when you click on a pin from Pinterest and it's a dead link?There's nothing worse than having your heart set on making something only to not be able to find the how-to.  Or maybe you want to use a photo in a blog post, but you can't find the source anywhere.  

Luckily, Google has made it easier to find the image source by allowing users to do a reverse image search.  I'm coming out of blogger hibernation to show you how to do it.  


For my example, I'll use a photo a FB friend posted today, without providing a source.  Aren't these the cutest little bunny coats???  Wouldn't you just love to know where to find them??  Yeah, me too!

source

To find the source:

Save image to your computer.

Go to Google.

Once there, click on Images (top left of screen).

Then click on the camera icon (inside search bar).

Now click on upload image and then choose file.  

Once you've done that, find and upload your saved photo.  Google will automatically begin searching for photo sources.

My image search came up with 2 possible sources.  Sometimes pages of sources will come up depending on how many times the photo has been pinned or blogged about so you may have to do a little detective work.  I've found that just looking at the link results being displayed can rule out many.  For example, I ignore any Pinterest links because they're likely to lead you to the same broken link.  I've done this about a dozen times and I can safely say that the originating source will most likely be on the first page of the results.  

Most of the time, you'll find yourself at the originating source, but not always.  You may still need to do a little more digging.  For example, this link led me to a post where this image was featured. 

Luckily, the source was provided and I was able to find the place where the photo originally came from. Yay!

Hopefully this will be helpful to some of you.  Now can I ask a favor of you?  Once you find the original source, would you pretty please pin from the correct place and delete the old pin?  There are so many bad pins out there and it's a shame that things don't get pinned to the appropriate sites.  

Repost - Valentine's Day Ribbon Wreath

I don't normally decorate for V-Day, but after I made those ribbon wreaths for Halloween & Christmas, I knew that I'd be making them for just about every major holiday.  They're just so dang cute and super easy to make.

I don't think I really explained how to make one before so I'll just do a quick run-through here.

Supplies:

Foam Wreath

• Ribbon & ric-rac in various widths and in colors that match your theme.
• One wide ribbon 1 to 2 yards long (for hanging the wreath)
• straight pins (you can use hot glue, but I hate that stuff)
• scissors

* I bought the heart in the center from the bargain bins at Target for $2.50 and I think it's perfect for this wreath.  I just pinned it's ribbon to the back of the wreath.

1. Pin the end of a wider ribbon to the back of the wreath form, leaving gaps in between passes.When you have gone all the way around the wreath, pin the ribbon in place on the back of the form and then cut off the excess ribbon.
2. Fill the gaps in with the rest of our ribbons and ric-rac.  To make this easier and to conserve ribbon, I do this part in pieces.  I pin the beginning of the ribbon to the back of the form, wrap once, then pin in back and cut off the extra.  Doing it this way also allows you space ribbon as you choose.

When you're finished pinning, take a one of the wider and longer lengths of ribbon and use it to hang your wreath.  Step back, and admire.  

No Sew Girlie Christmas Outfit

We had family photos done last weekend.  At the last minute, I decided that Zoe needed something festive to wear for some of the photos since this is her first Christmas.   I hopped on Pinterest to find tutorials for the different components of the outfit I wanted to put together.

You don't need a sewing machine to make this outfit.  You will need to hand sew the elastic that you use for the waist of the tutu, but that's it.

This isn't really a tutorial, but more of a collection of tutorials that I used to make this.

We'll start with the hairband.  Here is the tutorial I used to make the flower.  I made two of each size circle and stacked them.  After I burned the edges, I sewed the layers a few times with some thread, and then sewed a button in the center.  To assemble the hairband, I covered the back of the flower with hot glue and then sandwiched the hairband between that and a circle of felt that was cut a little smaller than the flat base of the flower.

 I used this tutorial for the tutu.  I held two strips of tulle together when tying to help make the tutu a little fuller.  I initially bought one roll of tulle and ran out.  I bought the next roll from another store, and it was a different shade of red.  That ended up making the tutu look like it had more depth.  I tied the new shade in between the existing tufts of tulle. 

For the applique shirt, I used Google to find a Christmas tree template I liked and then I used the same method I used for the monthly onesie numbers to make the applique.  Here is the template I used.  I left out the bucket and widened the trunk a bit.

Next up are the leg-warmers.  All I did was take a pair of adult socks and cut the foot off. I bought my socks at Jo-Ann's.  They were probably close to 2ft long in the leg section so you could use them for an older child. I sewed around the cut end of the sock to hem it a little, but if you don't sew, you could just tuck the edge under.  Hemming the edge didn't really make much of a difference.

 It's such a sweet outfit and it really was simple to make.  

Here's one more of my baby in her Christmas outfit.  This is one of my favorite photos of her and her daddy.

 

Sweetness! 

Linking to:

Look what I Made

Create & Share  

Hookin' Up With HOH

Repost - Christmas Countdown Blocks

*** re-post from 2010***

Christmas Countdown Blocks

A couple of weeks ago, Han and I were at Target where she found a cheap felt advent tree in the Dollar Spot.  She thought it was the cutest thing and wanted one so that she could count down to Christmas.  How in the world was it that my almost-twelve-year-old had never heard of an advent calendar?  I had to do something about that and buying a cheap felt tree wasn't gonna cut it.

Because of her age, I didn't want to do the whole "treat for each day" thing.  I just wanted her to be able to count down.  The cutest way to do that would be for her to have a set of countdown blocks.  

Aren't they adorable???  This was one of the most fun Christmas crafts I've done.  It was so much fun deciding what papers to use and it was so gratifying to see the awkward looking block transform as I sanded the edges of the papers off.

I got my blocks from Michael's for 99 cents each.  I've also seen them at Hobby Lobby for around the same price.

I painted my blocks first and then followed these instructions for making the blocks.  Sadly, I do not have a cutter so I had to use stickers for my numbers.  

Cap Creations 1000 Followers Giveaway

Head on over to the Cap Creations blog to enter a giveaway for one of my hand-knit cowls in the color of your choice.  There are a handful of Speckled Dog readers who have won cowls in the past, and I"m pretty sure they can attest to how cozy and soft these cowls are.

P.S. - There are other giveaways too, so be sure to check those out!

I first ran across Cap Creations back in the Spring of 2010, when I first started this blog.  I fell in love with her personalized jewelry.  

The artist's statement:
"Cap Creations specializes in making sterling silver jewelry that is hand stamped or engraved specifically for you. Each piece is meaningful, personal, and unique because it is centered around you and what you value most. Our jewelry is carefully handcrafted, each piece is heirloom, keepsake quality and with proper care it will last a lifetime."

Here are a few of my favorites.

They've got so much more to offer.  With Christmas coming up, you would be doing yourself a world of good to head on over to their shop and take a peek.