Makin' Your Own Sidewalk Chalk Paint

We've had some pretty fab-u-lous weather here in Indy and it's been beyond wonderful for everyone's moods. It's amazing what a little sunshine can do! Great weather means the girls are spending more time outside and I thought it would be fun to try out a new outside crafty project. There are several different versions of sidewalk chalk paint floating around Pinterest and I thought I'd give it a try. It was the BEST IDEA EVER! The girls loved it and it's so cheap to make! Way more cost effective than buying actual sidewalk chalk that breaks and crumbles. Plus it's fun to make your own colors!

All you need is:

• corn starch
• water
• food coloring
• muffin tin (picked mine up from Goodwill for $2. The are great for all kinds of painting projects.)
• paint brushes of various sizes 

See? Super easy and you probably have everything at home already!

For my mix I used 1/2 cup of corn starch mixed with 1 cup of water. I've seen lots of "recipes" that are a 1:1 mix, but that was too thick for us. It didn't paint well and it didn't wash off our patio to great either.

Put the corn starch and water in a bowl (it's helpful if it's one that has a spout) and mix until there are no more lumps.

Divide the mix into the muffin tins.

Add a few drops of food coloring...

...and stir

Have fun inventing your own colors...

...and let the creativity flow!

When it dries it looks just like chalk! Super cool huh?

Happy painting!

The Nap-Time Maxi Dress

Since this week is a recovery week for running, I took advantage of some "down" time and brought out my long lost friend and did some sewing! A few months ago I bought some fabric to make the girls coordinating maxi dresses for our upcoming trip to Cabo. All you have to do is Google "maxi dress tutorial" and you'll get a ton of results. I looked at a few and took bits and pieces from a each to make up my own "pattern." Since I was kinda making it up as I went along I wanted to do a trial run first. It was super-duper quick to make, it only took about an hour from start to finish. 

It's looking a little nightgown-esk for my taste, but with a few minor adjustments it's going to be the perfect maxi dress.

In the tutorial below I will show what I did in BLACK text, the RED text is any changes I plan to make on the dresses for Cabo. Feel free to shout out any suggestions or tips in the comment section yourself! (I also want to appologize for the tutorial pictures! It was a dreary day and the lighting was just awful!)

Here's what you need:

• Old T-shirt - The perfect shirt is one that fits in the arms and upper chest area but is too short. Of course you can go out a buy a new one, but's it's always nice to reuse one you already have. Knit is best. Noa's shirt was more of an a-line/tunic style. Next time I would use a more straight-lined shirt. 
• Fabric - For my practice fabric I let Noa pick out her favorite from the crafty closet. For their dresses for our trip I bought a nice light-weight, flowy fabric. You just want to make sure it's not too heavy or it will just pull on the knit top. 

First you want to cut off the bottom of your shirt. I measured from the under-arm area and left about 2 inches.

Then I measured the width of the shirt (from armpit to armpit) and multiplied it by 1.5. The length of the front of my shirt was a little over 12 inches. 12 x 1.5 = 18. This will be the width of your fabric panels. This was not enough fabric to give my dresses the flowy feel I was hoping for. Next time I will at least double the width.

After determine the width of each panel I needed to figure out how long I wanted it to be. I measured from Noa's armpit to where I wanted the dress to fall and subtracted the 2 inches that were left on her shirt. (I was planning on using the original edging of the fabric as the hem to avoid having to make a hem. If you are going to hem your dress just remember to add in about 1 1/2 inches to account for that adjustment.) Now you want to cut out TWO panels with the width and length you just calculated. Place them right sides together and sew up the sides.

I really wanted this to be a quick project so I didn't even bust out my serger. I just used the zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine and "serged" the edges old school!

At this point you should have a tube of fabric. 

Now you need to gather your fabric. For help with how to do a gathering stitch you can go {HERE}. Pull your threads until the fabric is the same circumference as your shirt.

Turn your shirt inside out and with right-sides facing, line up the edges.

Make sure to line up the seams on your shirt with the seams on your skirt.

Stitch all away around. Use a zig-zag stitch or serger to finish your edges. Turn right-side-out and bask in the glory of making a dress in under an hour!

As soon as the last stitch was in, the Lil' Monkey was adamant that she get to try on her new dress!

It's good for playing in the garden...

 ...and twirling...

...and smelling the flowers along the way...

She has declared it her new favorite dress and is wearing it today! I love that she loves it so much! She's already going through her old shirts looking for more that I can turn into dresses. 

Pin-tastic or Pin-trosity Fixin' My Make-up

A few weeks ago I made a purchase with Groupon Goods. It was a HUGE make-up kit for a very reasonable price. I'm not a big make-up-wearer, my main go-tos are concealer (I have 3 kids after all), a little bronzer, mascara and lipgloss. This kit had WAY more than I needed but the price was right and I have a few formal events coming up so I may need a little more fanciness. Besides, my girls will have a field day with all the different shades of eyeshadow!

I was so excited when it arrived yesterday! My bubble was instantly burst when I opened it and saw this:

There was bronzer EVERYWHERE. It was a huge powdery mess! I made a few quick emails to Groupon (whose customer service was FAB-U-LOUS) and was given a full return. Sadly because of limited stock, they couldn't replace the kit like I was hoping. I almost dumped out all the broken make-up, but then I remembered that I had seen {THIS} pin on how to fix broken powder make-up and I thought I'd give it a try!

All you need is rubbing alcohol. Apparently the higher the percentage the faster it dries so I bought the one with the highest percentage I could find.

I soaked a cotton ball with the rubbing alcohol and squeezed it into the area where the broken makeup was. The instructions say all you need is a "few" drops of the rubbing alcohol, but I found that if you used too little it didn't work. Instead of sticking to itself, it just stuck to my finger so make sure you use a decent amount.

After I switched from "drops" to "drenching" the process went very quickly. The broken eyeshadows were super easy. I put a little of the rubbing alcohol on them and gently patted them down. They dried very quickly too. 

The big bronzer took quite a bit of the rubbing alcohol, but once I had enough it smoothed out pretty nicely.

It took the longest to try, but in less than an hour it was ready for use. 

Sure it's not as pretty as it was when it was brand new, but it's in much better condition than when it arrived! So glad I "pinned" this little trick! I'm sure I'll be using it again!

Magnetic Chalkboard Tutorial

Little by little our new family office is coming together. I just have a few key pieces to finish and then I'll be able to share the complete makeover with you!

One of the things I really wanted for me and the girls was a magnetic chalkboard. I am a huge list-maker and while I'm very organized, sometimes I need a visual reminder. The girls, especially Lo, do great with lists too. It really cuts down on me having to remind them over and over (...and over...). Initially thought I could use magnetic paint under chalkboard paint, but after a quick unofficial Facebook poll I found I needed a Plan-B (It was pretty much unanimous that the magnetic paint doesn't work). I decided to use sheet metal sprayed with chalkboard paint. In the end it was the perfect solution and I'm beyond pleased with the result!!! I used a combination of supplies I already had and a few purchased with coupons. In the end I spent under $10 to make both boards! 

Here's what you'll need:

• Empty frame - You can usually get a good deal on frames without glass in them at Goodwill or at your local craft store. The one I used was from my clothespin frame. It was originally purchased at Michael's in their "mistake" frame bin. The one I put over my desk is huge, 24x30in. The girls' is 11x14in.
• Chalkboard paint - I like Krylon spraypaint. In my experience the regular paint kind doesn't adhere to all surfaces well. They sell Krylon at Jo-Ann's so you can use a coupon. 
• Tin snips - Giant scissors for cutting metal. I borrowed mine from a friend.
  
• Leather gloves - I used my gardening gloves. Once you cut the metal the edges are sharp and can cut you. 

• Sheet metal-I went to 2 different home improvement stores before I got smart. I guess the secret is out that people are using sheet metal for various crafty projects. When I asked for the sheet metal the sales people at both stores took me to a display of "decorative" metal. The sheets were in various sizes and the one that I needed for my large frame was marked $29.99. Um no thank you! There was no way I was going to pay that much for thin, flimsy metal! Instead I "borrowed" a magnet from the store and went in the plumbing aisle and basically stuck it on every piece of metal I could find to see which ones were magnetic. The one I purchased was 30"x36" and was only $7.99 a sheet (as an added bonus there was a $3 rebate on them too!). You could easily make two smaller boards with one sheet of metal. 

Here's what my frame looked like before:

• I removed all the fabric, twine and pictures and painted it one of my favorite colors left over from Noa's yellow room (It was a mistake paint so I'm going to be so sad when it's all gone!).  I did the same with the girls' frame.

• Using the cardboard backing from the frames I traced the shape on the sheet metal. You really need to be exact. I found that it's hard to trim with the tin snips, instead of cutting it just bent the metal. One of my sheets was too big for the frame and it took a bit of work to get it to fit properly.

• Follow the directions on the chalkboard paint and cover the sheet metal with several thin layers of paint. Let it dry according to the directions on the paint. Once it is completely dry you can put your metal into the frame, just be careful not to scratch the paint. The metal is fairly flimsy, so you'll want to make sure you have some support behind it. I found using the cardboard and backing from the original frame was enough. My mistake frame didn't have backing so I cut a piece of cardboard to fit it and then used duct tape to keep it in (no one is going to see the back). 

• Before you can use your board it needs to be seasoned. Basically you cover the entire board with chalk. I usually let mine sit for a bit. I have no idea if that makes a difference, but that's how I roll! Once it's seasoned it's all ready to use. The more you use it, the more seasoned it becomes and the better it will wipe off

Ta-da!!!

I'm in L-O-V-E love! Now I have a place for notes, reminders and pictures of the family. The girls love theirs too and keep asking me to write down homework for them, that NEVER happens!

I've got some cute ideas for magnets that I'll be sharing with you soon! You certainly can't have a cute board without cute magnets too!

Thanks for checking in!

Fridge Cups

I love when you find something that just seems to fit what you need in your life. I'm sure it's no secret that I'm feeling like I'm being pulled in all directions these days and when I saw {THIS} post I need we needed to make some for our house. Not only is this a fabulous idea (and why didn't I think of this!), letting the girls be a little more independent, but it was a super quick project which is what we're all about around here these days.

All you need is: 

• Lightweight plastic glasses-Ours came from Target for $1.49 each. The girls loved picking out their own glass. 
• Magnets-I already had mine and they were pretty weak so it took 5 for each glass. I thought that was a better idea than taking three kids to the craft store!
• Hot glue gun

Using your glue gun attached the magnets to the glass. If you have little ones make sure they are secure.  They are extremely dangerous if swallowed. I checked mine thoroughly and was pleased with how well they adhered.

Viola! Now the girls don't have to wait for Mommy to get them a glass. It's right on the fridge where they can reach it!

Two very satisfied customers!