Halloween 2015

Here are a few pictures of my Halloween decorations this year. It was my first Halloween decorating my own house and I was super excited.  The branches were pilfered from the side of the road and the signs were made from old pallet wood behind my paint store. Side note: paint is typically delivered on pallets, so paint stores should have some should you ever need a pallet. The bats are just construction paper and I borrowed the monster from my mom. 

Future Projects

Before I head off to sewing class, I wanted to share a few things on my to do list. I spent most of last fall making Christmas gifts so now it is time to make some things for myself.

This pom pom blanket would be perfect to toss onto my couch. However, it is really expensive. I hope to find a way to replicate the look for less. 

I can't find a source for this image besides pins and tumblr, but isn't it fun! Love the shape but I probably won't go with a crazy print. My sewing instructor will have to help me recreate the look from scratch since there is no pattern available.

Fortunately, this picture is from a McCall pattern. My sewing instructor found it on sale and thought of me. Now I just need to get to the fabric store!

And for my overly ambitious dreams...

pinterest

Pinterest

Sewing Projects Christmas Gifts

I sewed a lot of Christmas gifts this past year, thanks to my wonderful sewing instructor. She suggested ideas, found patterns, and obviously helped me learn how to make pretty gifts. I want to share a few of the things that I made, not because I want to turn Posh Purpose into a DIY blog, but because these gift ideas are super easy for a beginner. 

pillows for J's mom

pillows for my mom

 I love making pillows! If you buy the piping, making pillows is super easy and fast. Of course, I had to make my own piping to get the exact look I had imagined. I purchased the pillow forms, the fabric for both the body and the piping, and piping cord. I used a thinner cord for the bird pillows and an extra fat cord for my mom's pillows.

 I made three table runners this year. One for each of my sisters-in-law on J's side and one for my sister. Table runners are another easy project, but they do require more fabric. You need a top fabric (shown above) and a lining fabric to go underneath. Some people use the same fabric, but I went with a plain brown for the floral and a subtle green print for the wintery runner. Table runners are one of those home good items that can be a lot cheaper to make than it is to purchase.

I made way too many aprons last year. Sorry for the horrible photo editing above - I have no desire to share my somewhat messy kitchen on the blog today. I did not intend for the picture to end up on the blog, but I just realized I didn't take any other pictures! Anyway, I made two like the one above plus two others. Aprons can be easy or complicated, depending on what look you want. The one above had a lot of circle hems, so take that into consideration. You can probably find a lot of online patterns for aprons, or just wing it if you are so inclined.

Another project I made is this giant laundry bag for my dad's sailboat. I bought the canvas fabrics at Habitat for about $2 and totally made it up from there. Somehow the bag ended up far larger than expected. This is a case of the aforementioned 'winging it.' I put a draw string in the top and reinforced the horizontal seams quite a bit.

Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the rest of my projects before wrapping and giving them away. Maybe my sister will take a picture of herself in the apron she received (hint, hint). I really enjoyed sewing Christmas gifts and hope to do it again next year, but I may be otherwise occupied with sewing projects for my own home! 

DIY Christmas Gift Ideas

I'm almost done making all the Christmas gifts on my list this year, but I am starting to get worried about not finishing on time. J and I are going on our anniversary trip for 4 days, and then we are leaving the Friday before Christmas to visit family in South Florida up until Christmas Eve. This means I have significantly less time than I realized. I only have thirteen crafting days left! Eeek!

For those of you looking for last minute inspiration, here are a few of the DIY gifts I gave last year, plus a bonus gift idea from Trial and Error Creativity. All three projects involve objects you can easily pick up in Marshalls, Walmart, or Home Depot/Lowes and normal craft supplies.

DIY gold terra cotta pots were super easy and fast. The pots still look perfect after a year on my parents' back porch. That being said, they have also sat empty for the whole year so I can't say what happens if you plant something in them. Mother seems to prefer the pots as is.

This painted spoon project is also very easy, but you will need to prepare for a lot of drying time. My sister Bekah has been using these spoons for a whole year and the paint is still looking great. She even tosses them into the dishwasher!

My sister-in-law monogramed these glasses as part of our wedding gift. Aren't they great?!

Hosting a Baby Shower Across the Country

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower with my sister-in-law for our cousin and her wife. However, this wasn't your typical baby shower; it took place in Boston, with most of the planning happening in New Hampshire and Florida. The theme of this baby shower was "easy going decor that travels well."

The mothers to be decided wait to find out the baby's gender, so we went with fall purple and green. I couldn't help myself so I threw in a bit of champagne glitter as well. Considering only one part of the shower was glittery, I think I showed great restraint. I doubt the carpet where all the excess glitter landed agrees.

Since the shower was being held in our cousin's apartment in Boston (which was actually quite spacious!), I knew space would be more limited than what I am used to when planning showers. I decided to stick to a festive food table and a paper banner for where the gifts would be opened. I didn't want to deal with buying craft supplies in Boston so everything had to fit into checked luggage without breaking.

The flowers were sent by a wonderful friend who couldn't make it, considering she had recently moved to Australia. I can't take credit for how beautiful the arrangement looks as my only contribution was sharing the color scheme of the table.

The cakes, chargers, napkins, forks, and plates traveled with me in my suitcase. My sister-in-law provided the brownies and the serving bowl and platter were part of our cousin's collection. I added in grapes at the last minute in case people wanted something slightly less sugary.

My sister-in-law organized the onesie decorating as a way to entertain the guests. She provided onesies of various sizes, paint pens, and cardboard rectangles to keep the paint from bleeding through. She also framed a cute sign explaining the project, but I forgot to get a picture of it! The was actually very popular with most of the guests, so I definitely recommend this idea for anyone hosting a shower with men and women.

The banner turned out really cute, if I do say so myself. It doesn't exactly go with the table decor, but the colors are complimentary and the rooms were somewhat separate. I almost went with a peacock feather and sparkly purple theme but changed my mind at the last minute. The nursery has a western theme and I wanted the banner to coordinate in case they wanted to keep it.

I have a few tips for anyone who finds themselves hosting an event across the country. First, ask for help! I could not have done it without my sister-in-law. She was able to take care of all the heavy beverages since she lives within driving distance of the city. And it made a huge difference in the planning that I could count on her to figure out all the details for the onesie decorating activity.

It is also more economical to host the event at someone's home; I don't think anyone thought our choice of location was odd or tacky due to out of town hosts. However, this is not the time to leave who is hosting off the invitation. The invitation clearly stated that we were hosting so nobody thought the mothers to be were having their own party.

I am so happy I decided to keep the decor and menu simple. I was able to do all the DIY in Florida, which made set up super easy. I think I worked for maybe three hours total setting everything up over the course of two days. That left a lot of time for visiting, which is far more important than Pinterest worthy tablescapes. Not having to place food orders over the phone and then either relying on delivery or trying to pick up the order in an unfamiliar location also kept the event low stress. And everyone loves homemade desserts! The theme of the week is baby shower, so stay tuned for more info.

Party Shoe DIY

I hate when I'm shopping for a specific event and I can't find the right shoes. This happened most recently when I was helping my niece Myah shop for her first homecoming. After trying on almost every dress in Dillards, we finally found the perfect one! But none of the shoes in the mall were right. They were either way too high, expensive, or just not right for the dress.

We finally ended up at Forever 21 for accessories when inspiration struck! There was a pair of plain nude suede heels that weren't too high and in Myah's size. I had to figure out how to make them work because of the $22 price tag. My first thought was to glitter them, but then I found $7 necklaces that matched Myah's dress perfectly. That totals to $36 for custom shoes!

I used shoes (obviously), pendants (earrings and necklaces are good options), gorilla glue, a q-tip, a sewing pin, and pliers. J actually used the pliers because I was worried about scratching one of the gems when removing the chain from the pendant. 

First I very lightly marked the shoe with a pencil where I wanted to position the pendant. This step is important later because you can't really wiggle the glue around unless you are ok with visible stains. I slightly dampened the shoe where I wanted to glue and also the parts of the pendant that would touch the shoe. Then I applied the glue to those pendant surfaces with the q-tip. Using very steady hands (borrow a pair if you must!), I placed the pendant on the shoe based on my pencil markings. I didn't have a clamp so I just held it in place for about 30 seconds and then I was able to let go. 

One piece of advice: read all the instructions on the glue before starting. While I got through the part that said slightly dampen your surfaces before applying glue, I did not realize that the glue would expand a lot or that it would dry white (see picture above). This is where the sewing pin comes in. The glue started to ooze out of all the nooks in the pendant. Not pretty! So I took my sewing pin and started to either remove or push the glue back under the pendant, as it made sense for the location. This process took more than an hour because the glue just keeps on going and going.

 Good news is that the pendants stayed firmly attached to the shoes after a whole night of dancing at homecoming. Yay! I let the glue set for almost 36 hours; this is not a project you want to do the afternoon of your event.

Isn't she adorable! I had a great time shopping with her and then helping her get ready for the dance. And she had a lot of patience with me as I made her try on every single not strapless dress in her size. I can't wait to do it again!

Halloween Runners for the Mantle

My mother loves decorating for Halloween probably more than any other holiday, including Christmas. She hosts a party for the whole family before trick or treating starts where we all eat chili and pregame on candy. It gives us a chance to admire all the kids' costumes and take pictures of all the cousins.

This year mom decided she needed new decor for her mantle. She found a lot of great stuff at Marshalls, including two table runners. She had the idea to combine them into one piece to lay over the mantle. And since I have been sewing for long enough to master straight lines (at least in short distances), I put the thing together.

This project was super easy. The black lace runner you see going along the length of the mantle went untouched. The orange witch feet runner was cut in half, after triple checking because we are a family of perfectionists. Then all I had to do was borrow my sewing teacher's serger to bind the cut edges, roll the stitching under, and sew the orange pieces to the black piece with a straight line. See, super easy! 

These pictures are not of the final product. There are rolls of tulle and ribbon that are lying about and Mom needs to snip the white tag out of the black runner in the corner. However, I decided to share early since there is a limited amount of time for holiday DIY inspiration. Do y'all have any Halloween projects in the works?

Another Chair Project

As you may know, I am in a sewing class with the lovely Mrs. Loveless. She has been hunting down fabrics for all the Christmas gifts I plan on making this year (side note: I already finished the first gift! but obviously a secret until 12/26/2014), which is awesome. During her most recent trip, she found the absolute perfect fabric for a pair of chairs I bought at Habitat.

First, take a moment to admire my chairs. J was not impressed, but they caught my attention as soon as I went upstairs at Habitat. The shape is cool, but everything needs recovering/refinishing. Even better? They were $20 each. In case you were wondering, I did not take the pile of window blinds home. Other thrifters were sifting through stuff and piled things on my chairs as I was trying to buy them.

Here is the fabric. It is a heavier fabric meant for upholstery. Mrs. Loveless snatched up three yards of it when she spotted the lovely pink and grey stripes on the sale rack for $9/yard. I had shown her the chair picture last week and she thought this fabric would be great.

Little did she know how perfect the fabric is with my couch. I had already imagined the chairs with their cool shape complimenting my roll arm couch, and the fabric just brings the project together even more. Fortunately, Mrs. Loveless is an integral part of this project which means it will actually be completed in this lifetime. She is going to help me figure out how to redo the fabric parts of the chairs. Yay for accountability and DIY company!

One minor issue: Mother somehow called dibs on my chairs, even though she was out of town when I bought them. I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy for loving the chairs, so I texted the picture to her while standing in the store. The first thing she said when I called her was "dibs!" I'm not entirely sure how that counts, since the rule of thrifting is whoever has it in their hands first gets to own and love it. That being said, we have to determine the custody of the chairs before I start cutting away at my fabric.

Recovering Paint Store Chairs

As I mentioned a while back, I am slowly working towards updating my family's paint store. My mom ventured over with me and we picked out fun paint colors to show off Benjamin Moore's great selection while also appealing more to women.

We are waiting for the usual summer slump before we dismantle the store and paint the walls and baseboards. But I just couldn't stand waiting! I decided the chairs were just too worn to be tolerated any longer and needed to be recovered immediately. The problem? I was swamped with work and trying to leave early for the airport but didn't want to waste my free shipping code! Thank goodness for Melinda. I told her the names of my paint choices and sent her a picture to refresh her memory of the paint store appearance. With that information, she gave four recommendations with this one being her first choice.

$10.80 per yard at Online Fabric Store

This fabric is just perfect. It pulls out the colors we chose for our walls and is very durable! And the busy pattern will hide any stains that break through the water repellent treatment. Let me repeat: Thank goodness for Melinda

the stained before and happy after

This was the first time I recovered chairs so I won't be writing a tutorial (you can find plenty of tutorials including this one by Young House Love). Instead, I will share some tips that I figured out while winging it - my favorite approach to DIY projects.

1. It took me less than an hour to do all four, which included taking pictures. However, my paint store guy helped by taking the chairs apart and putting them back together. Plan on having lots of time so you don't have to rush. It is no fun pulling out staples, as I learned that day.

2. I ordered 2 yards, which was a bit more than necessary but I wanted to make sure I could choose which section of the pattern to center on each chair rather than be concerned with conserving fabric. I measured my chairs and added 4 extra inches to each side for overlap, just to be safe. However, I could have probably gotten away with 2.5 inches on each side. I had enough fabric left over for my niece to make me a purse (surprise birthday gift from her) and a swatch large enough to redo a chair in the event of an unfortunate accident.

3. Decide how you will center the pattern on each chair before getting carried away with the staple gun. I decided to put a hexagon in the center, but did each chair with a different one since I had four chairs and four designs to use. I also decided to put the pointy ends of the hexagons up/down rather than going across the width of the chair.

different design in the center

4. I found my chair looked the best when I stapled in the order below. Otherwise, the corners weren't as perfectly folded. Really put thought into how you are approaching your project. It depends on the chair shape. Also keep flipping the seat over to make sure you are happy with how the fabric is working. Agani: pulling out staples is no fun.

repeat this patter for the two back corners

This project was super easy and I am very happy with how the chairs turned out. The paint store is much cheerier, even after that little bit of work. Melinda suggested I get a few pots of succulents for a low maintenance (and small) centerpiece and an outdoor rug to go under the table. The goal here is to improve the store's appearance without adding onerous chores to my paint store guys' responsibilities.

Do you have any DIY projects to share with us? We love to hear from y'all! Tweet or instagram at us! And great news! This project was featured on Roadkill Rescue!

My DIY Travel Bucket List Project

I've been wanting to create a travel bucket list for Mr. 3 and me.  I didn't want to make it into a google doc where it gets forgotten or slap it on the fridge where it will inevitably fall on the kitchen floor.  I also wanted to make something that would let us see it everyday to remind us of our goals so that we don't forget as the years go by.  Mr. 3 had a shadow box frame from Pottery Barn at his old bachelor pad that we hadn't found a use for just yet.  I decided to find map themed paper and write out each place that we want to travel to on our travel bucket list.  I found a few sheets of scrapbook paper with a travel theme for about 59 cents each at Michaels.

I used my paper cutter to make lots of strips of paper for each destination.

Mr. 3 and I had a marathon conversation one night about all the places we wanted to visit and I took a navy blue pen and wrote one destination on each paper strip.

I decided that I wanted them to look like little flags, so I found some small sewing scissors and cut a triangle out of each strip to make a flag.

I ordered a box of multi-colored map pins from Amazon and arranged them alphabetically for domestic and foreign travel.

I left a little bit of room on each flag so that I can go back and write the month and year we checked a destination off the list.  The shadow box has a stand which makes it easy to display in our living room.

This was a super cheap DIY for me, I think I invested maybe $5 in the project because I already had the shadow box, paper cutter, and markers.  Target has similar shadow boxes available if you would like to make your own travel bucket list display.  If you want to make a similar project, keep a few extra flags for future destinations.

I like looking over and figuring out where Mr. 3 and I might travel in the next few years.  Right after I finished this project, Mr. 3 and I decided we want to check Maine off of our list next summer.   While we are a young couple on a budget, it's fun to dream and make plans with each other for future adventures.  I really encourage everyone to find a way to tastefully display a travel bucket list somewhere in their home to remind them of their dreams.  Anyone else have a travel bucket list?  Are we missing any place spectacular?  Let me know!

Thrift Store Lamp Restore

Guess what. I actually finished a project. Unfortunately, it was not one of the projects I discussed back in February but we can look past that and just focus on Briana actually completing something in its entirety. Prepare yourself, this post is super long and full of steps within steps. It is a miracle I finished within a few months of purchasing the lamp.

I bought this lamp for $5 at Habitat for Humanity. I really liked the glass base and immediately thought about gold leafing the brass on the bottom. Then I took a really long break and totally forgot about the lamp (J did not). While the lamp worked, it was in rough shape. You can see the rust between the glass and brass in the picture below.

J took the lamp apart for me, thank goodness. I prefer to let him handle dismantling things that eventually need to go back together.

He tried polishing the brass with a brillo pad but it didn't do much good. I upgraded to a sanding block, which made more progress. Melinda finally took pity on my frustrated efforts to sand away the rust and googled home rust remedies. Some internet source said to soak the rust in white vinegar/water mixture and then sand away. It really worked! The rust came off so much easier.

1. Just brillo pad - could not see a difference
2. Sanding block - a lot of the raised up rust came off, but there was still quite a bit
3. Vinegar + sanding block - the rust came off with a lot less sanding on my part, but I still couldn't get everything clean. I finally decided that it was good enough since I had a sealing spray to lock in whatever rust was left.

 Next step was my sealing spray primer. I used X-I-M primer 400 clear, which was recommended to me by my paint store guys. I let the first coat dry for more than a day before applying a second coat, just to be sure that everything was fully sealed. My paint store guys strongly recommended that you seal immediately after wiping down the piece with a dry cloth. And I strongly recommend not spraying primer over the price tag. My fingernails were tacky for days after peeling the sticker off through a layer of wet primer.

Then came gold leafing. As I tweeted a while back, I don't enjoy this task. It requires steady hands and patience, but the final look is well worth it. I ordered this gold leafing set on Amazon because my local Michaels store's only set had broken up gold leaf sheets. There are plenty of online tutorials about gold leafing, so I will just give a brief summary.

Apply the adhesive in a thin coat, but not so thin that you don't get full coverage of the area. The leaf will stick wherever there is adhesive, so stay within the lines! Wait for the adhesive to turn clear (15-20 minutes for me) and apply the gold leaf. I found it was easier to cut the sheets into smaller pieces as they were easier to handle. Move slowly and turn off the fans and air conditioning, you don't want a breeze. These leaf sheets very easily fold into themselves and then you have to start with a new sheet.

in the middle of the leafing step

Once you get all the surfaces covered with leaf (it is ok to overlap), take a dry brush or cloth and rub off the excess. All the bits that are creased or overlapped will flake off and you will have a textured yet smooth to the touch surface. Apply the sealer if you are not using real gold leaf so your color does not tarnish. Let dry, and you are done!

I gold leafed all the exposed metal: the whole base, the center pole that goes through the glass, and the cap on top of the glass.

I went to my local lighting store to finish up my lamp. I bought a shorter 9" harp for $2, a square finial to coordinate with the glass for $11, and an off white silk shade for $42 (on sale 25% off). Overall the lamp cost me $60 plus tax and $11ish for the gold leaf. I had all the other supplies on hand and I used less than three of the 25 gold sheets. I could have saved money on the shade and skipped the finial, but even J said the silk shade is definitely worth it.

I need to touch up the front of the lamp base; I accidentally scraped off some leaf before it fully dried. I recommend you let your project cure for at least a day before flinging it around to a lamp shop like I did. Another note is that the lamp works with our incandescent bulbs but did not work with our CFL bulb.

I'm thrilled with how my lamp turned out! Now I need a break from DIYing before I attack anything else on my long list of thrift store rescues.