Fancy Pillows-- Envelop style

I watched this tutorial and followed her instructions to the letter. It was easy. The results were fantastic.

So I started with the fabric I had purchased for the very special draw string bags I made this fall. Even thought I bought a remnant, it was nearly a yard! I had more than enough for the bag and two pillows.

 It is no secret. I am horrible at cutting fabric. So I made a pattern. I followed the instructions in the video and I used an old atlas to make a pattern. It worked like a charm.

 After cutting the fabric using my pattern, I hemmed the edges of the fold as instructed and then pinned the back to the front, right sides facing. Then you simply sew the square together. This is so easy.

 And they are simply beautiful.

 I used a simple silk on the back. So elegant.

 I made these for the almost staged living room. The chairs are a great peacock blue velvet. I love them, but wanted a throw pillow. The pillows really have a touch of every color we have going in the living room, which ties it all together very nicely.

This project required no materials, as I had the fabric and the pillow inserts. I would estimate it took me maybe an hour or so, from start to finish.

There once was a tree...

There once was a tree in our side yard. We loved this tree... and so did the Emerald Ash Borer. Those nasty pests destroy Ash trees like no one's business. We knew the tree's days were numbered. The ash in the back yard failed to produce any leaves this year... the treat out front gave it the old college try, but it was clear, this would be its last summer.

When the tree in the back yard dropped a good size limb, while H was picking up sticks, he decided it was time for us to get it taken down. I said the tree in the front side yard had to go too. Maybe would could have eked out another year, but the try was right by our bedroom and frankly, I do not need a large tree crashing through the roof, into our bedroom on a dark and stormy night, while H is away. No thank you.

I love trees. I hate to see them cut down. Part of the charm of our neighborhood, is all the mature trees. A ton of mature ash trees.

There are less and less trees thanks to that nasty bug.

 My beloved tree, as the guy climbed up, chunks and chunks of bark came down... this is a sign the tree is dying, the bark just falls off in sheets.

 The lower part of the tree failed to produce leaves this year. We knew when the once lush tree was mostly naked that the end was near.

 A limb just crashed down, no need to cut it...

 This was all that was left, a tiny puff at the top of a once rich and lush tree. The kids and I have spent many a day under this tree, on a blanket or in the hammock.

 They tied a rope to the tree and pulled as the guy cut a notch into the tree. It was a tall tree. I shudder to think what our house would have looked liked had mother nature blown the tree into our house. Yikes.

 This is the dead tree in the back. It proved a challenge to get down, as so many of the lower branches had shed over the last two summers.

This tree, while sad to lose, is less devastating that the tree in the front. In many ways this opened up a spot for the maple to thrive... out front it is just nothingness. I want to plant another tree, H wants to think it over.

This is an up close shot of the damage this borer does to the trees. It munches tunnels through the live part of the tree, which sadly kills the tree.

Last week I was looking longingly at trees in the parking lot of a local nursery. I want to replace my tree, but with what and frankly it will be time for me to depart this world, before anything we plant grows to the size of the tree we lost.

Product Review: Purex Ultra Packs

I do alot of laundry. In fact my washer is going almost all day, nearly every day. I wash the kids clothing twice a week, especially now that it is soccer and post practice and post game day, Little Fellow is a mess. L dances multiple times per week and always seems to want to her favorite leotard.

H comes homes with a suitcase full of dirty clothing, every time he comes home.

I love my new to me washer and dryer and I have had a front loading washer for as long as we have lived in the house we live in now. I love the concept, the fact that they use less water and offer me a variety of settings.

My one complaint is the soap. Even using HE detergent, I felt like sometimes things were not getting clean and that soap was clogging up the system. Sometimes things did not get clean, even with pretreating and soaking.

So one day I decided to try out Purex UltraPacks. Target had a great promotion and I had nothing to lose, as Purex had a money back guarantee.

After using the entire package of 26 pods or 36, I can't remember how many I went for to start with, all I can say is I am sold. No drips, no sticky mess to clean out of the drawer of the washer and I can tell a difference in the clothes. They are cleaner.

I will say I do still use liquid detergent when I am washing just a few items, it happens, sometimes I need to wash just 5-6 things, then I use  a little bit of regular liquid soap. That said, I seldom do that anymore and I think I am going to break up liquid detergent and stick with the packs.

I am also sure this is not the most environmentally friendly product on the market, but it works. I have tried other soaps and products and they just don't always do the job, which leads to me doing a second wash or another soak and that isn't all that environmentally friendly either. (Not to mention it eats up my time.)

As always no one has given me anything to write this review. I just wanted to share my thoughts on this products. This is no guarantee you will even like these Packs. I do-- you might not.

And with that, I am off to empty the washer, again...

DIY: Dip dyed party dress

I tweeted at the time, if this works out I am taking all the credit and if it was a bomb, I was going to blame Pinterest.

I am pleased to say it turned out beautifully.

Finished dress

So here is the process.

Find a dress. I found this fun strapless number on the clearance rack at Old Navy. It was off white with white stitching. I loved the style of the dress and the stitching work. I also loved the price. It was marked down to $11. Not a huge loss if I ruined it in the dying process. I had tried to find something a a few local thrift stores, but I had very limited success.

Plain off-white cotton dress

Close up of the beautiful stitching.

I prefer to work with Rit dyes and in liquid form. The powdered ones are ok, but I get the best results with the liquid ones. I settled on Petal Pink.

I used alittle over half a bottle of dye and 1 c. of kosher salt.

Then I did some prep work. I measured the dress and decided how I wanted to layer the color. Then I used our drying rack and pants hanger and played with placement of the dye bath and the dress. This took a bit of time, but it was worth it in the end.

And yes, I am fancy. I use a trash can for my dye bath.

See the ring from the last time I dyed jeans?

So I created the bath, positioned the dress roughly 2/3 of the way into the dye bath and let it sit for 3 hours. Then repositioned the dress, so only a 1/3 remained in the dye bath and let is go for another three hours.

I removed the dress, let it dry for a few hours and then washed the dress in cool water. The remainder of they dye delicately tinted the top 1/3 of the dress, just as I had hoped it would.

I am left with a pretty three-toned pink frock, which I have worn a few times already and everyone seems to really like it. I have paired it with a pink necklace. Mom is probably rolling her eyes-- pink is not generally my go to color, but in this case I think it makes the dress just perfect. (Mom was a huge fan of pink.)

On a side note, I wasn't sure what would happen to the stitching. On the off-white dress, the stitching is almost lost, as it is white-on-white. After my efforts-- the beautiful stitch work really pops. I think that may be my favorite part of the dress now.

This is a totally easy fix for a tired old dress or a ho-hum frock on the clearance rack!

Total cost-- maybe $15 and about 6-7 hours of time. (well an hour of active time and about 6 hours of the dress hanging out in the dye.) When I wore this dress to dinner for my birthday-- I felt like a million bucks.

A long overdue introduction...

We have some new members of our furry brood. Allow me to introduce Tizzy and Bizzy. They are gerbils and they are awesome pets for the little guy.

This is Tizzy. He was the first gerbil to join us.

Tizzy is in the back and Bizzy is up front.

E was set on a Siberian Hamster, but they are pricey and do not live very long. H and I actually did some small animal recon and in speaking with the woman at the pet store, we learned that gerbils sleep at night and are basically fairly happy to live with little fellows and all their quirks.

We got Tizzy first. E had wanted to name his hamster Lizzie but the gerbil was a boy, so we had to get creative. We brought Tizzy home on a Thursday evening. On the way home Tizzy nearly ate his way out of the transport box. I felt him nibbling at my lap as we pulled in the driveway.

After we got him settled, I began to feel really guilty leaving his brother behind. Gerbils prefer to live with a partner or a buddy.

We set up a gerbil habitat in our aquarium. Some fluff and the tunnel E picked out, a water bottle and a food bowl. The old hamster wheel rounded out the package.

While Tizzy seemed happy enough, on Saturday morning, because we might have finally lost our minds, we took a trip back to the pet store to pick up Tizzy's bro. We took along a plastic carrying case, so that there would be no lap nibbling on the return trip.

After some sniffing and some strange dancing, the gerbil brothers were cozy and happy to be cohabiting again. They spend most of their days destroying paper and chewing on boxes. They like fluffy fluff and spend alot of time redecorating their home, daily.

One afternoon I went into E's room, where the gerbils reside, and they had wedged enough fluff and a partially destroyed box, to keep the wheel from moving and were climbing on top of the wheel and taking turns jumping or diving into a pile of fluffed fluff.

Neither gerbil is too excited to be held for too long. They aren't cuddlers, but they will let E handle them long enough to put them in the ball or to visit. We have had a few nips, but it isn't horrible.

They really are fun to visit and keep E company. He is thrilled.

What do you do with those veggies...

Everyone asks me this, when I tell them about my CSA with Wayward Seed. So I am going to try a new blog series-- my wayward seedlings!

So in week one this is what I got---

Vegetables
Allium, Tokyo Long Scallions   (1 bunch)	1
Beets, Chioggia   (1 bunch)	1
Cabbage, Napa   (1 head)	1
Greens, Broccoli Raab   (1 bag)	1
Lettuce   (1 head)	2
Peas, Sugar Snap   (1 lb)	1
Radishes, Pink Beauty   (1 bunch)	1
Turnips, Hakurei   (1 bunch)	1
Fruits
Strawberries   (1 quart)	5
Herbs
Herbs, Oregano   (1 bag)	1

When I got home I cut the greens off my root veggies like a good farmer's wife! Seriously, the roots will keep in the crisper in a target bag for weeks, if you remove the greens right away.

I was already making some soup, so I chopped the beet greens and the radish greens and mixed them into the soup. I had planned to use some leftover kale, but used my fresh Ohio organic greens instead. The turnip greens I wrapped in paper towel and put in a ziploc. I thinly sliced half the radishes and half the turnips and we ate them for dinner. After dinner, I gave one quart of berries to a friend and picked through the remaining four, discarding any rotten or smooshie berries. I prepped two quarts for the freezer and froze them in ziploc bags. H ate 1/4 of a quart of berries as he watched me prepping. The remaining berries are in containers in the refrigerator. They won't see Saturday, with all the berry lovers in this house. I bought L some black raspberries and we ate most of them for dinner on Wednesday night. The remainder, I split with L for breakfast on Thursday morning. I dumped my portion of the berries into the VitaMix and added in the following: 1c. of apple cider, 5 baby carrots, 1 small Chioggia beet, 1 small orange peeled, and 1 c of ice. It was so good. So beautiful to look at too! I ate two radishes and a turnip for lunch on Thursday. So delish. E really wanted pancakes. So I made gluten free pancakes and served them with some of the awesome strawberries. Really, these are some of the best strawberries ever. The kids devoured the pancakes and since I am drastically limiting any and all grain, I had two silver dollar pancakes and a huge pile of berries. I also had a boiled egg. I started to feel guilty about the lack of veggies, until I remembered my smoothie from breakfast and decided I was probably ok for the day. I shelled the peas as I cleaned up the kitchen from dinner and Truffles gets the pea shells and I will cook the peas for dinner Friday night. Friday was a busy day. I was glad I had prepped the peas ahead. After a busy day of errands and lunch out and a trip to the water park, I was hungry. The kids nibbled left over pizza, peas and yummy Ohio strawberries! I made myself a stir fry. I cut up very thinly an organic carrot. I grated some ginger (about 3 tsp.) and chopped half an onion. Heated up the large skillet and stir fried the carrot wheels and onion for about 5 minutes. I then added some chopped Tokyo Long Scallions and a hand full of the uncooked peas, stirred madly for about a minute and then I added the chopped radish greens and some of the firm red lettuce I got in this week's share. I stirred until the greens were mostly wilted and then I poured over the skillet my sauce. The sauce is some soy sauce (the gluten free kind), some fruits of the forest jam, the grated ginger, and some sweet chili sauce. Cook another minute and serve. I fried and egg and put it on top, but that is optional. You could serve this with rice, to soak up the extra sauce or some bread. Being nearly grain free-- I just ate it with my egg. So easy and so fresh. Saturday was a long day away and I made a shake using one of the beets, but nothing else from our share got consumed. And Sunday was a lazy day. I drank the remainder of my veggie fruit shake and nibbled on fresh lettuce and berries. We met friends out for dinner, so no veggies from the share prepped for dinner. Monday H was home, so it was work on those veggies time. I made a wonderful salad with the romaine -- which the kids loved just plain! For our salad, I used some of my chive vinegar (which I made from chive flowers from my yarden), oil, fresh ground pepper and some left over goat cheese. Chopped some radish and turnips and apricots and tossed it all together. We enjoyed the salad and crispy baked chicken wings. Monday night was a post pool free for all. I had some of the left over soup, which had the lovely greens in it. Monday afternoon before the pool, I made a small gluten cookie crust, using what pretend to be gluten free vanilla graham crackers. I crushed them in a baggie using my rolling pin and mixed them with about 5 TBS of butter (organic) and baked it at 350 for about 10 minutes. I used my small tart shell pan, which I think is 8 inches. Tuesday we hit the fruit and veggies again. The strawberries I carefully picked through and put in a container are still holding their own. I removed the tops and sliced them lengthwise, until I had about 2 cups of berries. Setting them aside, I whipped the tiny bit of whipping cream I had left with 2 tsp of powdered sugar. I stirred in the 1/3 cup of sour cream and about 2 more tsps of powdered sugar. I grated in the zest of 1/2 of a lemon. Stirred gently to combine and then spread this over my tart shell. I spread the berries over the cream very carefully and then I drizzled over the berries a tbs of mixed berry jam that I had mixed with the juice of half a lemon. (You can heat it gently in the microwave to make it easier to drizzle.) The kids loved the tart.  As a veggie with our lunch we knocked out the romaine and the radishes and turnips. This time I used some basil flower vinegar, oil, fresh cracked pepper and some feta crumbs.  The kids feasted on the super crispy tiny inside leaves from the lettuce. E, my non veggie lover, announced that that was his kind of lettuce. For dinner, I fixed the broccoli raab, by sauteing it gently and finishing it off with a bit of lemon juice, the remaining scallions and butter. So fresh and so tasty. I have to say while I really like broccoli raab-- I am in the minority. So by Tuesday evening, I am left with one beet, half a head of lettuce,  maybe a pint of strawberries and the napa cabbage. Oh and the oregano. I am going to dry it. My family doesn't love fresh oregano, so drying it for the winter makes sense. Had we not been totally consumed with dance on Saturday and exhausted on Sunday, I think we would have knocked it all out. It is also is hard when H isn't home, he can be counted on to help me work through those greens. While I am not sure I will be able to keep up this long list of what we are eating from our CSA weekly, I am going to try. I think it is important for everyone to see, that it can be done, it looks beautiful on the plate and it is so good for you and the community.  I think you will also notice-- that I hardly work from a cookbook. I am often a fly by the seat of my pants cook... so please remember, if I give you a quantity or an amount-- more or less to suit is probably ok.

unTangled up in Blue

H and I have become those parents and our kids each have an iPod touch. They inherited H and I's old ones. Part me loves the way the kids have embraced technology and the other part of me is contrary and thinks that technology is ebbing into their lives too quickly.

I will say, the iPod does make traveling with kids so much easier. They can bring their movies, tv programs, music and games with them. It does make the long car trip and the plane trips very pleasant for everyone.

The only hurdle for me are the ear buds. Where are they in the backpack, the panic attacks when the kids can't find them. This has been an issue. First I addressed it by being the party to carry the ear buds, then I taught then to wrap them around the iPod. Inevitably they get loose and sink to the bottom of the backpack or the far corner buried under books.

Before our trip to the sunshine state, I decided to address this issue.

Behold the fleece lined denim iPod pouch. The vintage buttons are a nice touch.

The process was very easy.

1. I used a pair of E's jeans. He has the uncanny ability to split the knees of his jeans in such a way, that I cannot patch or repair them. So I decided to put the latest casualty to good use. He wears a size 6-7 slim. These were 6's. I laid the iPod on the leg of the pants, even with the yellow hem stitching at the base of the leg. Once I cut it to the desired length, I then split the leg open at the inner seam. Measure or eyeball the desired width and trim accordingly. In my case I wanted a snug but not tight fit. Remember this is all about little fingers being able to execute the storage and removal process solo.

2. Find some fleece you like. In my case I used some scrap I had. L got pink and E got black monster truck. I used the denim piece as my pattern and cut the fleece to match. Stitch with coordinating thread all the way around. Wrong sides to wrong sides. Then fold in half and stitch following the existing yellow stitching. Making the pouch. I back stitched at the upper corner for extra security.

3. Cut a small strip of fleece. I find using the selvage edge is good way to go. Less stretch and you are going to get rid of that bit anyway, why not put it to use. Carefully stitch into the pouch, about 3/4 inches in. I doubled stitched and back stitched each time. This is going to get lots and lots of tugging and pulling. It needs to be tough.

4. Find a large and preferably slightly raised button and hand stitch it to the front of the pouch. Take your time and do this right. Using embroidery floss won't hurt. Remember this is going to get lots and lots of tugging too.

Then enjoy. This will easily hold your iPod and head phones. No more missing ear buds and your screen is protected.

E today at tea, had arranged the pouch in such a way that it acted as a stand, holding his iPod at the perfect viewing angle. Only my budding engineer could come up with that creative use for my quick denim iPod carrying case.

I would say this process took about 1/2 hour or so. It truly is a quick fix project.

All in the Family

It is hard to believe that Catty NKA Snickers has been a member of the family since late 2009. I really can't imagine not having her as part of the family.

She really has grown on me. I can also say that my cat allergy or my allergy to her, has waned significantly. Either the near daily exposure to her for 3 years or perhaps me finally getting my health issues in check, has meant less trauma to my immune system and has lead to a significant change in household protocol.

Snickers comes in now.

In the early months with us, she never tried and we never offered. This continued until last fall. In part the reason we kept her out was my allergies and my mother's allergies. If mom was to come spend her last days here, there could be no indoor cat action.

Over the winter, mild as it was, Snickers seemed to want in more and more. To sleep. She just wants to curl up, with all of us around and sleep.

The other day, I swear she was passed out on a dinning room chair like a frat brother after a weekend long kegger. I clocked the sleep time at roughly 5 hours.

I really do want to keep her off the soft furniture and out of the newly remodeled family room. I also think the basement and the first floor are domain enough for her, no being on the second floor. So far she has gravitated to the morning room and the dinning room. She seems to like the big windows and the sun light. She loves to jump up on a dinning room chair and hide under the table or be in the corner. In the morning room, she favors a corner, under the plant stand, near the register.

This is not at all to say that she isn't testing those boundaries. This past weekend she hid in both of the children's closets on two separate occasions. When she burst out of E's closet, she scared me to death.

I think once we put the patio furniture on the deck, she may stay out there more, as she can hide on a chair under the table, which seems to suit her just fine. Last week our neighbor and L's BFF took care of the food and water patrol and predictably Snickers got huffy and ran off, as we were not home. I suspect she would have returned on her own, but the storm Friday might well have gotten her in a state of affairs. She also is minus a bit of fur and her collar.

On Saturday, I dispatched L and her BFF and H to a house up the road a bit. For whatever reason, after storms, she hangs on this family's deck. It is possible, that that house used to be her home or she just goes there when she has lost her way. I theorize that perhaps she did live there, because that house changed hands at about the same time we acquired Snickers. Maybe they didn't want her making the move or perhaps she ran off and they never found her. Either way she favors this house. H carried her home and other than some loud meows and haughty stares, she allowed the in arms transport. Happy to be home, but reminded H not to make a habit of this transport method, thank you very much.

 

Snickers is one of the most social, pack minded cats I have ever known. When we are outside, she is right there with us. She often "stands guard." I will joke that she is our vicious attack cat. I am only half kidding. I think if she thought someone was threatening us, especially the children, she would do her worst to protect us.

This was St. Patrick's Day. I was watching the kids ride their bikes, while waiting on my BFF to come over for dinner. Snickers was one part protecting me and keeping a close eye on her small charges.

Look at that determined face. I wouldn't cross her in a dark alley.

Doors

Our house is a very traditional neo-federal style house. It has very simple lines and not uncommon to this simple house style, a market or tradesman's door. It is the first door you come to along the front walk.

This door leads into the hallway and nearly directly into the kitchen. Hence the name, Market door or Tradesman's door. At our house this door has another wonderful feature; it is covered.

Let's recap. The market door is closest to the driveway and covered.

And yet - this is how Fedex keeps addressing the delivery of packages on rainy days:

 

FedEx and the USPS are the only ones who choose a plastic bag over the covered porch.

 

As we can all see here, even on what had been a very rainy and windy night and morning, the covered porch is nice and dry.

So that begs the questions, which is superior? My covered porch or the the thin as can be, won't stop a serious rain, plastic bag?

Umba Box: My Review, Month 2

Last month, I blogged about Umba Box and indicated I would commit to at least three months with them. This month, I got in the mail a surprise collection of body products, all homemade and very generously sized.

Rinse Bath & Body are homemade body products, which based on this box, stack up with their chemical laden cousins. I have had the box for about 10 days, but did not have time to really focus on the contents until the other night.

The cute bath Truffle I am saving for this weekend but it smells divine as I sniffed it and I am dying to give it a try. We are huge fans of LUSH bath bomb in this house and I am excited to see how it stacks up. Price wise they are equivalent and the plus, they are wrapped like Hersey kisses, making them easy to store.

I have been loving the skin stick. Basically a giant sized chap stick made of shea butter and beeswax - with some essential oils. Fantastic. I have been using it on my lips, hands and elbows. I love that it moisturizes and isn't at all greasy. I also love that it isn't basically scent neutral. I am a light on the fragrance girl.

The item I was most skeptical about was the Cafe Mocha facial mask scrub. It smells like burnt coffee. I used water to form the paste, but next time I am going to try yogurt or maybe even soy milk. I made the paste, slowly adding small splashes of water and then put it on my face. I let it dry, for at least 10 minutes. It was good and dry by the time I got in the shower.

While I was not thrilled with the Starbucks like smell which at that point permeated my bathroom, I am sold on the results. My skin was noticeably smoother and brighter. In short it worked - it is salt free and no harsh chemicals. It is also not oatmeal based. I worry about oatmeal based skin products.

In generally, while I am very careful about what I eat, I am not as picky about my skin products and their level of gluten freeness. I probably should be. I am careful to avoid things at LUSH or other places which contain beer or oatmeal.

Rinse uses all natural components and they also have some vegan products.

The story card enclosed was very informative and again this is a woman owned and operated business. Heather started making soap as a hobby in 2002 and then expanding. According to the card Rinse products are available at over 200 boutiques nationwide and online.

I love this, a small woman owned business, making quality body care products.

I also love that I can pronounce all the ingredients, pronounce them and actually could probably buy most of them at Whole Foods. I like the back to nature skin care approach. More to the point, I think my skin responses well to gentle cleaning...

While when I initially opened the box, I wasn't completely sold on the idea of a coffee mask and a giant chap stick, after I tried them out, I am really enjoying the products. In terms of making a purchase, I am more likely to buy the skin stick. It is something I have never really tried before, but really like and the stick makes it the perfect way for me to take my lotion along in my purse or gym bag or writing desk for that matter.

So I wonder what Umba Box will have in store for me next month?

DIY wall Mural...

H and I redid the master bathroom at the same time we redid the kitchen, because we are crazy people. We added a bathtub, which we both love. Above the tub is a great old mirror, which used to be in the kitchen. The frame of the mirror matches the new cabinets very nicely. I bought this mirror while shopping with my mom right after we bought the house. This is my decorating go-to, a mirror.

The other wall is blank. Totally blank, which I think suited H just fine. He is such a minimalist. He loves white and empty. To me this space above the tub just looked empty. When we went to Michigan I shot some pictures, which I thought might really be perfect for the space. While the photos might well have filled the space nicely, I could never find the right frames.

Before we continue, I have to tell you about a website that I just adore Fab. Fab features curated shops ranging from furniture to jewelry to clothing. Mostly indie and always with a focus on design. I have actually been shopping with them for awhile and I love everything I have ordered and the customer service is outstanding.

The first time Fab featured wall clings, I passed. I did not love any of the designs and I was a little worried about the application process. The second time, well I fell in love with a botanical motif and I decided it was worth trying.

This item took a bit of time in shipping, which was a good thing. It gave me time to talk myself into giving this a try and when it arrived, I was at a place time wise to go for it.

Inside the box was a tub. Honestly, do you want to know what the hardest part of this project was? I mean the one part that I thought I might never accomplish?

Getting the sheet out of the plastic tube. No kidding, I had to work and work at getting the rolled sheet out of the tube, it was in that protective sleeve but good.

The clings are on a single sheet of this special blue backing, covered in a clear cover sheet. They are manufactured in Canada, Montreal to be exact by a firm called ADzif. The designer is Lotta Jansdotter. I love Lotta's sensibility. Very modern and fresh and natural.

The second hardest part and the scariest part was cutting out the clings. You have to cut out every leaf and the two trunks. Cutting is the skill I am lacking in. I am not a good cutter. I had to give myself a pep talk for about a half hour and admit my fear twice on twitter and once on Facebook, before I actually had the gumption to slice into these babies. (I had washed the wall the previous day. The directions do not say this is a necessary step, but I think it is prudent.)

Once I had the leaves cut and sorted by size and the trunks cut, I did as directed and taped the trunks to the wall. Careful to measure and make sure my design would be centered over the tub. (This was easier than one would suspect, because I used the wall tiles as a guide.)

 

I should mention that I found my rotary cutting mat a very helpful tool for this process. It gave me a flat and solid surface to work from. I marked on the wall carefully where my trunks were to go and then took them down from the wall.

Now began the easy but tedious part.

Using a used up gift card, I had to place each decal face down on the rotary cutting mat and apply firm and equal pressure to the blue surface, following the grid printed on the reverse of the blue backing paper, to transfer the decal from the blue paper to the clear over cover. The directions were very clear and concise and this process went very smooth.

I have to say this is an instance where I think one can see the quality of the materials and the care in the manufacturing process. This product performs as it should. 

And there began the slow process. Once you have the decal transferred you remove the blue backing carefully, position the decal on the wall, and then repeat, only this time you are using the used up gift card to carefully transfer the decal from the clear cover to the wall, very careful to smooth out any air bubbles. Once set, you carefully pull the clear coversheet off the wall, leaving behind the white decal.

Each leaf is placed separately. I basically  followed the leaf pattern from the enclosed picture and then decided to free hand the falling leaves.

Instead of a pile of leaves, I wanted to create the illusion of the leaves falling into the tub.

From start to finish, with one short tea break, this took me about two hours. It is tedious. Placing each leaf with care and the stops to transfer the leaf from the blue backing to the clear coversheet and then to the wall.

I think it was worth it. The white design looks great with our white subway tile and the mural really does fit the space well. The design is also minimalist and white.

For the investment of about $35 and 2 hours of my time, I have a custom looking mural. Not a bad investment all around.

It was so worth it. I love the results and it fits the space just perfectly.

Lady Liberty's Closet

The first grade classes at E's school do a monthly special share. It varies from writing a few sentences to making a how to video. This month we had to make something that involved the Statue of Liberty. E could choose to write a story, a poem, make a poster or build something.

Naturally he wanted to build something. I have to say my building talents are not the strongest and H was slated for a lot of traveling. E and I kicked around Lego creations, foam sculpture and paper mache and chicken wire.

L kept reminding us that we only had a week and that all of those ideas sounded great until you actually got started. She was lucky, in 1st grade her classroom got to do the Flag and we wrote a story and drew a picture.

Then while watching reruns of Bravo's Top Chef, it hit me. We could do a deconstructed Lady Liberty. It is all the rage in food, why not in national symbols?

While we are used to seeing Lady Liberty looking a bit like this:

E and I have transformed her and we proudly present Lady Liberty's Closet:

 

and inside her closet:

She really is very one note when it comes to color. I think she may need a fashion intervention.

E and I crafted all of her items using stuff we found around the house. The box we got from a neighbor's trash pile. It was exactly deep enough and in very good shape. E and I covered the "doors" in duck tape. JoAnn's has piles and piles of colorful duck tape. The door nobs are drawer pulls from a table I got from my mom but immediately changed the drawer pulls out.

For the closet bar, E and I measured and cut some old pvc pipe we found in the basement. I used a hack saw. H was in the kitchen and yelled down, "Are you cutting PVC pipe." I yelled back, "Like a pro."

For the sandals, we traced E's feet and then cut a top strip. The tablet was easy, just free hand a gravestone shape and cut.

For the torch we used a plastic cup and part of a paper towel roll and duck tape. (on the day of the presentation, we have gold tissue paper all prepared to act as the flames.)

While the building was fun, I think E enjoyed dying a length of old white sheet, using hot water and Rit Dye. He got to pour and stir.

The only part of Lady Liberty's outfit, which we bought was her crown. It was a 99 cents foam crown, which came in grey sparkly. The down side is it only has five points and the real one has seven points, but we are working with what we have and seriously, the crown is sparkly. (Even after we painted it.)

While many people thought me using a hack saw was the scariest part of this project; it wasn't. The scariest part of this project was allowing E to spray paint the props. We found, at JoAnn's, blue spray paint that is pretty close to the correct color.

So last Saturday and again on Sunday for touch ups, I placed the sandals, torch, crown, and tablet on newspaper and shook the can of paint and handed it to my six year old. Crazy I know. It was not lost on me, as he began spraying, that this was a spectacularly poor idea.

Although with some coaching, he actually did a pretty good job.

So for about $15, E and I have built something for his project and he is excited to share his creation and the fun facts he has learned about the Statue of Liberty. He has note cards all set, with each clothing item on it in big letters and 1-3 sentences about that item on the back.

I hate to be cliche, but sometimes you just have to think outside the box.