700 pounds of fruit

My sisters, mom & I canned 700lbs of fruit this week - 175 lbs today... I'm trashed & ready for some ice cream.



Brit

GAME TIME!!!

I did this game for our family, I organized all our games and realized we only have a few family games...lame. But I didn't want to spend $26.99 on a game ...so I found a board we already had and changed it into a game!!! I painted the board green with the mulitcolored path.

Then I cut a bunch of paper into cards and wrote some different acitivities, trivia, multiple choice, and true or false questions. When you land on a yellow space you read a yellow card and answer the question or do the activity.

We haven't tried out the game yet but I'm excited!!!

This is actually the Back of the board but it's what it looked like before I prettied it all up. If the game goes well I'm going to make another game on this side- hopefully completly different than the one I just made :)

Hooooray!!!

Sorry we haven't posted much lately... Here's what we've been up to. Every Day. We've been having sisters Friday every day of the week, it seems that almost everything we can has been ready at the same time...wowza...Lots of canning :)

up next to can...more tomatoes, pearsauce, apple sauce, pumpkin, peach jam...I think that's all we have on the agenda for this season. We just learned how to can meat & beans!!! So at some point {after the holidays?} we are going to can all of THAT :)



Any suggestions on my next game?



Brit Cooper

Double redo....dresser

So do you remember this little dresser my friend gave me? It started out like this....

Before 1

I painted and modge podged fabric on the fronts and painted the pulls...

After & Before

Well my little girl moved rooms to share with her older sister and now they are sharing a dresser. I needed her old dresser for my massage linens bur the pinkish cream drawer pulls were a little too girlie so Therese and I painted them a chocolate brown... (speaking of chocolate- I dreamed of homemade chocolate last night- delicious!)

After!

The dark brown gives so much contast I love it!!! One of these days I want to line the onside with something cute but that's another post :)



The best part of all was that it was all free! Free dresser, already had the paint, the fabric and the modge podge!

Yes!



Brit

Backpack and Jacket knobs

I am so EXCITED about this project.

  I purchased some of the supplies I needed to make this a year ago.  I was having a very hard time wrapping my head around my desired outcome...Also my DH had conflicting views on how he thought it should be hung on the wall...

So I put all the supplies in my ever overcrowded sewing room to Wait for me...(sometimes I feel I should call my sewing room the waiting room.  Tons of projects and ideas just waiting to be conquered or lets face it even thought about)  Then one day there was a stack of Melody Ross Designer Scrapbook Paper sitting on my sewing table and BAM!!! I knew how I was going to accomplish my Backpack hanger..

So here it goes.....

I rummaged around in my cupboards and 'organizing' totes until I found all 8 of my previously purchased 4" wood pieces. 

 

 Spray paint the wood pieces with flat black.  I used flat black because I had a lot of it and figured I was going to Mod Podge over the top of it anyway...

so why not?

While they were drying cut 8 roughly 4x4 squares out of awesome papers...I did all different paper.  Apply Mod Podge to the top of the wood and smooth the paper over the top. Placed them upside down on the table with something heavy on top to help the paper dry smooth. (as you can see some of it dried more smoothly than others)

I know that you are wondering how I got such perfect sides if I roughly cut the paper...

well I am going to tell you..

If you want a visual on this step scroll down to a following step.  When the Mod Podge dries completely take sand paper and using one direction strokes sand off the paper along the edges of the wood. (If you go back and forth your paper will shred and look terrible)  Mod Podge over the top of the paper and the wood.  

Let dry

  

Then take regular ol' drawer pulls..(I purchased my just for this and was going to leave them they way were but I decided that they didn't match my paper or my envisioned finished product) 

Put them in a piece of styrofoam still covered in its plastic packaging (if you don't the styrofoam melts) Spray paint the drawer pulls with Glossy Black spray paint...

sorry I forgot to take a picture of them spray painted

Find a piece of wood that is the right length for your wall....I used an old cheap shelf that I took apart and then cut in half lengthwise (not pictured)

Take your awesome paper and tear it into strips about 2 inches wide...there are no right or wrong answers here.  Then place them on the board in a manner pleasing to you..  Gently slip them off and put Mod Podge on the board only where you are placing the paper pieces.  I did about 3 inches at a time. 

As you place each additional strip of paper put a little Mod Podge on the previous strips edge to accommodate the overlapping paper.  When the paper is all on and dry use sand paper to remove the excess paper (if you look at the nursery wall hanging post on the bottom you can see what it looks like before sanding..I can't figure out how to move the picture from one post to another and Brit took the picture on her phone)

This is what it looks like when the sanding is done

Mod Poge over the entire surface...let dry

Take a little bit of brown paint and mix it with some Mod Podge the ratio is about 1 part paint to 5 parts Mod Podge.  Then you do a paint on then wipe off technique.  The desired out come is a slight antiquing.  The brown Modge paint gets in the cracks and crevices to give a antiqued finish 

Find the center of your wood pieces and drill a hole.

Place the wood pieces on the board (I measured and measured so they were all the same distance apart) Then mark where the holes should be and drill.  Screw the drawer pulls through both pieces of wood

Then Hang your masterpiece on the wall...I placed mine on the wall in a manner that the studs lined up so the screws could be hidden behind the wood pieces.

    

Then stand and admire how totally crafty and awesome you are!!!

 

~Jo

Baby room turned massage studio!!!

This past Sisters Friday I was the lucky sis to have my sisters come to my house! My not so little baby moved in with her sister and SO we turned her room into my massage studio!! I have taken a baby break from massage for a couple of years and now I'm back! YES!!! So now every Wednesday my studio is open for business... :)

I did enjoy the line green, pink and purple but...not so relaxing. The best part? I had everything I needed to do the redo already at my house...paint and all! It does help that in our last house I had this room already :)

I painted it a soothing champaign color with dark brown & cream! I'm so excited!

My sisters helped me move furniture in, hang some tricky artwork, paint some knobs on my dresser and organize all that I need...they are the best! I'm so excited for this before & after because it represents a shift in our life.

Sometimes we are on top of our Friday to do list but we moved each peice of furniture about 8 times and then hung up the artwork 3 times a piece! Funny.

What do you think?



Brit

Nursery Wall Hanging

I was invited to a baby shower for this past tuesday...the mom to be is a foodie to the core and we ate and ate and ate crepes to our hearts content. That's what I wanted to make for my daughter for her first day of school this week but she wanted eggos...lame :)

So this is what I made for my friend...

I painted a board cream and pink

Then modge podged a little birdie out of vintage fabrics...

Added some polka dots...

And a vintage red boarder...

Done ! Refer to the picture at the top!



Below is the next project i'm posting...any guess to what jocelyn's making?!!

Brit