Indoor Snowball Fight

This is what I made for my nephew for Christmas.  I also made one for myself because they were so cute.  I also found this idea on Pinterest.
The can is a large fruit can that I got from a school cafeteria.  I sponge painted it green, white, and blue.  Then I painted the nose orange once the white dried, and then I took a black sharpie marker and did the eyes and mouth and letters.  Then I filled it with white pom balls that I made out of yarn.

This is what the balls look like inside of the tin.  I took white yarn and wrapped it around a binder 150 times.  Then I took it off the binder and tied yarn around it to section it off. I had 4 sections.  then I cut the ends and the middle of each section to create a pom-pom.  I trimmed up to make it into a ball shape when necessary.  12 poms fit into the can.  So I had to repeat the yarn steps a few times.

"Homemade" Donuts

These are Super easy and Yummy!
I found this idea on Pinterest and I decided to see if it would work...it DOES!
These donuts are made from Pilsbury Grands biscuits.  You take a biscuit and cut the center out.  Then stick it in the deep fryer.  When it is floating, you turn it over and cook the other side.  Then I took them out and covered them with sugar and cinnamon.  They were delicious.  Mr. K doesn't like sweets...and he thought they were delicious.  I an very excited to be able to make these anytime I want!

Christmas cookies

These were the Christmas cookies that I made for the cookie exchange this year.  They turned out pretty cute, so i wanted to share them with you.  I used royal icing (my first time using it) to decorate the cookies.  I got the recipe from Pinterest, and i like it because it dries hard, so I was able to stack the cookies without them getting messy.  I also used a normal sugar cookie recipe that I found on Pinterest, but I used multi-grain flour instead of white flour (because that is all I had in the cabinet) This made the cookies turn out darker than normal but didn't change the taste too much.  The icing is not very thick so its not over powering the cookie.  I made holly leaves with berries, gingerbread man, candy canes, stockings, gloves, snowflakes, and Santa hats. SUPER CUTE!!!! I will be doing this again next year.  They also make very cute gifts.

These 2 were my favorite out of all the Christmas cookies.  I liked them all but these 2 I loved.

Fall Wreath

This weekend I was decorating for fall and I didn't have a wreath to hang up.  I went shopping and saw wreaths at the dollar tree. I bought a few and decided to make one.

I also bought the ribbon at the dollar tree and the flowers.  All together this cost me only $3!  I separated the flowers and glued them and the ribbon to the wreath.  It turned out really cute.

Wedding Stuff

I made my own vial for my wedding.  I went to Wal-mart and bought ivory tule and plastic jems from the craft section.  I already had a comb and my aunt attached small rubber bands to the comb side and then I glued the jems to the comb and randomly along the vial.

I wanted it to be simple, but sparkle in the sun since I had an outdoor wedding.

I also made these memory "books"  out of all the cards that we received for our engagement, shower, and wedding.

 This was my money bag that I used for my bridal dance.  The bridal dance is a Western Pennsylvania tradition where all the guests put money in the bag to dance with the bride. As the guests are finished dancing with the bride(1 minute) they form a circle around her and her parents are the last people to dance with her.  Once the bride's father dances with her, the groom has to try to break through the circle to get his bride.  This is done at the reception after the ceremony and is A LOT of fun...but tiring. My colors were blue and yellow for my wedding and I found this draw string back pack at target for $1 in the dollar section.  I took it home and cut the strings so that it was still a drawstring bag, but it wasn't a back pack anymore.  Then I used silver puffy paint to make the K and write KUBICEK under it (for our last name) and then I added out date below our name.  I got a lot of compliments on the bag so I wanted to share it with you since it was so simple but so cute.

Shower Curtain on a Window

In my Craft Room, I have a shower curtain hanging over my window.  It was a fun print and it is long enough to cover the window. 

House Numbers

This is also an idea I got from Pinterest.  I thought it was super cute and was really excited to create it.  I got the K from Micheal's and painted it black.  Then I drew the numbers on paper and cut them out (to make a stencil) then used a silver sharpie to draw them onto the K and colored them in.

Wedding Day Keepsakes-Thanks Dad!

My dad is also crafty when he wants to be.  For my wedding I asked him to make me a card box.  Because I'm addicted to pinterest, I found different things that acted as the card box, but were not cardboard boxes decorated to look nice.  I had originally wanted a log hollowed out with our initials carved into the side (since this is how Mr. K proposed to me) but I ended up splitting all the logs, so that wasn't going to work.
 My next idea was to do barrel and then turn it into a table stand when finished with it.  I didn't think I would be able to find a barrel for cheap, so I scratched that idea. 

Finally I found a picture frame box that I liked on Pinterest, so I told my dad that I wanted to do this for my card box.  I bought the frames at the dollar store, and then printed out 4 18x11 pictures at Wal-mart of where Mr. K proposed to me.  I put the picture in the frames and gave them to my dad and told him that I wanted him to make a cube out of the frames to hold my cards in.

He did a FANTASTIC job and I couldn't have been more happy with the results.  My mom put it on a lazy Susan turner for the wedding so that   the guests could turn it to look at all the picture.

My sister in law took this picture the day of the wedding and it is better then mine.  Check out her blog: Inspiration in Creation. 

Also, my dad build it around a cardboard box so that it wouldn't open unless we cut the bottom out. 

Because my dad is so awesome, he also found a barrel for really cheap at an estate sale and varnished it for me to use as a card holder and I got to choose what I wanted.

I ended up bringing both to my wedding and used this to put flowers and decorations on.  i hope to still turn it into a table or something one day but for right now, it is just sitting in out basement as decoration.

My dad also made shoe stoppers for my heels for the day of my wedding.  I got married outside on a golf course and I was afraid that my shoes would sink in the grass when I was walking down the aisle.  I found on pinterest a picture of the heel stoppers that are supposed to stop you from sinking in the grass.  I had never seen these before, and when I clicked on the link of pinterest, it was just a picture and not a store link.  I looked around at different shoe stores and the people working at them either had not idea what I was talking about, or hold me they didn't carry them.  I told my dad about it and he made me them for the bottom of my shoes.  They worked perfectly, and I didn't sink in the grass.  I was very excited about these and I tested them out a few weeks before the wedding to make sure they would work.  When they did, my mom wanted a pair for her shoes, so my dad made her a pair too.  Mine were ivory because that was the color of my dress, my mom's were metalic silver, because that was the color of her shoes. 

I don't know how he made them but it didn't take long at all.  Leave a comment and I can see what I can do if you are interested in these.

Corn Hole Board

Mr. K wanted to build our own corn hole boards last year.  He did a great job and we got the requirements online.  Once the boards were sanded and ready to play with, we were able to paint them.  Since I love snoopy, I decided to paint Snoopy and Woodstock on my board.  I found a picture online and drew it out on my board.  Then went back over and painted it.  Once the paint was dry, i went over all the lines with a black sharpie so that everything would stand out.

Mr. K is also sort of crafty (when he wants to be) and he painted his board with a  red, white, and blue flag.  It is really cool but I don't have a picture.

I want to change my board for next year but I'm not sure what it will be...

Storage and Decorations

We got a entry table that we put to the right of the door when you first walk in our house.  We throw mail, keys, my purse, my phone, water bottle (it is a catch all station)  when waling in the door.  Most of the time it is messy ( that's why I didn't snap a picture of the whole table)  Anyways, since I won't spend money on decorations, I wanted to share some of the decorations I made for this table.

 These were oatmeal containers, coffee containers, and a bread crumbs container that I wrapped in tan yarn (cheaper then rope or twine-and I already had it in the house) and glued it to cover the containers.  To get the containers different sizes and lengths, I had to play around with the containers we had to see what would work.  I ended up taping together 3 small coffee containers to get the tall one in the back, another coffee container and a bread crumb continaier together to get the middle one, and the oatmeal container is by itself.  Once the containers were taped together, I took the hot glue gun out and started wrapping yarn around it, gluing every so often when needed.  When they were completely wrapped, I needed something to put inside them.  I found these "stick like things" at the Dollar Tree and decided they would work.  I bought 2 of them and split them into 3 sections.

This was a popcorn tin that we got for Christmas last year. I covered in with white construction paper and painted a K on it.  It now holds all my winter gloves, hats, and scarves. 

The baskets on either side of the tin were bought at Wal-mart for $5 each.  They are for catch all items.  Mr. K has one and I have one.

Wall Decorations

When we first moved into our house,  it needed stuff on the walls.  I HATE spending money on art work because it is so expensive for something that just hangs on the wall and doesn't serve a purpose for anything other than to look at.  Since I refuse to spend a lot of money on decorations, I made a lot of the ones in our house.

This was the first one I made for the house.  I got the idea from Pinterest (I'm addicted to it) and thought it was very cute and crafty.  The frame was a old painting with fruit on it so I turned it over and painted the back of the art work white and gray stripes.  I measured the stripes and taped them off to get them straight.  Then I cut out a red heart from construction paper and glued red buttons onto the heart.  I glued the heart to the middle of the picture and hung it in our hall way at the top of the steps.  I also painted the frame around the picture because it was a wood color and didn't go with the gray stripes.  Because I already had the paint, and construction paper, all I had to buy was the buttons and I picked those up at Wal-mart in the craft section for $3.

I got the frames at Walmart in the craft section for $5 and then I painted the flower swirls on the paper provided in the frames.  I also painted the frames black which were originally unfinished wood.

 

 This was also a Pinterest find that I loved and wanted to recreate.  This is a canvas (you can pick up at Wal-mart 2 for $10) and a silhouette picture that I printed out from online.  I cut out the silhouette and painted it black so it would be all the same color.  I placed it on the canvas and covered the area  with painters tape so the crayon would not run into the section.  I took then started to melt different shades of blue crayons with a blow dryer onto the canvas.  Once the crayons dried in place I took off the take and glued the picture down.  This is my favorite art work in the house right now. 

Sewing- covers

I want to start off by saying that I am not a sewer.  I have a sewing machine that I like to play around on, but I have never been trained in sewing.  I can do the basics and i sort of understand the concept, but I am NOT advanced AT ALL!!

In this picture I covered the 2 light pillows that went with the couch in the following picture.  It was a blue aztec print (that didn't go with our house at all) but it was given to us so I was not going to complain.  I went to G street Fabrics and looked through their clearance pile and picked up the off white color for the pillows and the tan fabric used to cover the couch for under $3/yrd.  The pillows were easy.  I just measured the pillows and added 1 inch to each side when cutting the fabric.  I sewed 3 1/2 sides of the pillow cover on my sewing machine, and then stuffed the pillow in, and hand sewed the the gap closed. The other pillows I got at Target.

 

 I also made the cover for the couch.  As I said before, it is a blue aztec print that is very bold, but it was free and I was not about to pass that up.  I got fabric and made the cover for under $30.  The throw blanket was a wedding gift and the pillows I bought at Burlington Coat Factory.  The cover that I made is not connected to the couch at all.  It is not fancy and definately not perfect, but it works for us and hides the blue print under it.  I started by measuring the seat cushions and added an inch to the measurements when drawing them out on the fabric.  I cut each piece seperate and sewed them together to make a 3-D cover.  Then I measured the distance from the floor to the bottom of the cushions and made this a flat piece of fabric that was as long as the couch and as wide as the couch (seperate pieces) to cover the bottom. It was basically a skirt for the couch.  This I attached to a ribbon and tied it in the back.  Then I took a sheet of fabric and tucked it into the back of the couch and around the head of the couch.  This is a flat piece that can be pulled off at any time.  The hardest part of the couch (because i had no idea what I was getting myself into) was the arms.  I measured and guessed what the angles were when i was cutting the fabric.  They ARE NOT perfect, but they work.  Again, they are not sewn onto the couch and can be removed at any time.  

All the loose ends are tucked into the skirt at the bottom.  I should have ironed the fabric before sewing it... lesson learned for future sewing projects.  There is a crease in the right suchion that has been there for a year that won't seem to come out.

Tee Shirt!

I am also a 1st grade teacher and I like to participate in the spirit days the school has for the students.   Our school mascot is a croc and we center many things in school around Crocky!  I was new to the school and didn't have any croc gear, so I decided to make my own.  I have made 2 shirts and plan to make more for the special "school holidays"  I googled croc images and found one I liked and then printed it out and traced the out line onto my tee in marker.  Then I took puffy paint and filled it in. 

 

This is one of my tee shirts that I made.  On the back, it says I <3 my 1st graders. 

 

This is my other tee that I made,  This was the 1st one I made.  There is nothing on the back.  These are nice to wear on Friday's or at the beginning of the year when I am moving into my room and don't want to be dressed up.  

Recovering Chairs

I told you earlier that we bought a house last year and we also got a lot of furniture that people didn't want any more.  Mr. K's parents gave us a dining room set that they didn't want anymore.  This was a BIG expense that we didn't have to spend.  The furniture is in great condition, but was outdated.  I recovered the chairs and it looks much better in our dining room now!

 As you can see from the bottom of the seat that they were recovered once already.  The brown and white fabric was NOT cute!  Then the green is what we had to start with.  I chose to cover the chairs in a white and brown striped fabric that I found at Wal-Mart for $4 a yard.  I got 6 yards for 6 chairs but I didn't use all of it.  In the picture above I laid out the fabric on the floor and cut it bigger than the seat so I can wrap it around to the bottom. 

 I first stapled the top and bottom to the bottom of the seat and then the sides.  I left the corners go until all sides were stapled (with a staple gun) to the bottom of the seat.  I didn't take off the old fabric or stuffing in the seat, but there are a lot of directions on how to do this also.  I just wanted them covered. 

 Once all 4 sides were stapled in I pleated the corners and stapled them down too.  This gave the corners a finished and unified look so they looked the same.  You can't really see the corners when you turn the chair the correct way and sit down but it was nice to know (for my own sake) that they were the same...just in case

This is a close up of how i pleated the corners.  and stapled them down.  I finished all 6 chairs in about 2 hours...including ironing the fabric, cutting the fabric to size, taking the seats off the chairs and screwing them back onto the chairs.  This was a quick project that took hardly anytime at all and made the dining room look so much nicer.  

First Post

I am starting this blog along with my teaching blog because I also enjoy crafting when I have time.  Mr. K and I bought a house last year and we have been slowly updating it and I wanted to keep track of what we have done and share it with you.  We have done all of our upgrades ourselves and didn't have to hire anyone to help us. This saved us a lot of money!   So I hope you enjoy this blog!