Laundry Room Makeover

I saw this great Laundry room reno and had to share it with you!

Before:

A pretty nice, normal laundry room.

After:

An amazing, calming, beautiful space!

Before:

Nice.  Fine.

After:

WOW!  Love that ceiling!  And the can lights!!  Fantastic!

Love that tall storage cabinet!  And I'm a big fan of counters over the top of the laundry machines!!  Great place for sorting and folding. :)

Before:

Great closet.

After:

So cute!!  I guess they didn't need the storage space. :)

Speaking of storage, who says we have to keep laundry detergent in those ugly bright boxes they sell it to you in.  So cute in these glass containers!!!!

And these are to die for.

Love how she decorated this space.  It's very simple and functional.  But also so beautiful!!  Very well done.  Check out {Life in the Fun Lane} for more info.

Boy's Room

Just loving this classic little boy's room.  I really like monotome kids rooms.  This one looks so cute with all the white everywhere, too.  I love the striped quilt, the plaid storage boxes on the shelf.  That little elephant on the shelf is so cute!!!  I love the tiny little bath robe hanging on the wall.  I love the bunting around the window, too.  Such a cute and simple window covering.  This room just makes me smile.  It goes to show you that having a really cute room doesn't take a lot of decoration, work, or money.  Very cute.

My Petal Shirt

I posted about this shirt {here} quite a while ago.

  Using {this Pleated Poppy tutorial} I made this shirt:

I bought {two shirts at Old Navy for $5 each}.  Cut up one for the circles, and used the other as the shirt.

Mine turned out different from the pleated poppy shirt, shown above.  But, I still like it.

I think I cut my circles quite a bit smaller than Miss Pleated Poppy did...  Mine were between 1 and 2 inches in diameter.

In her tutorial she says that the shirt ended up looking a little too ruffly for her, so she used a sewing machine and stitched over the top of all the "petals" to sort of flatten them.  I decided I liked the fluffies.  So, I didn't sew over them.  I did stitch the edges of the circles to the shirt so they lay underneath other circles.  This ensured that they layed how I wanted them to lay on the shirt instead of being dragged down by gravity.  And maybe that's a big part of why my shirt looks different than hers.

No matter - I love the way it turned out!!  Might have to buy more double shirts and get even more creative!

Sunshine Party

Saw a cute little Sunshine party on {Kara's Party Ideas}

Perfect for a late summer day.  Love all the yellow!!  Aren't those buntings cute!?  And all the yellow tags just make me happy. :)

I love the decorations lining the deck with those streamers haning off of them.

And those flowers are gorgeous!!

Such cute and easy decorations!  This is a party anyone could pull off.

Love the lemonade and how all the food is "packaged" on that table. 

Great things both kids and adults would enjoy!

 It's so cute!

Don't you just adore it!?

Oh, such pretty colors.

Seriously in love with those homemade buntings and streamers!  They are so much cuter than crepe paper!!

Very cute take home gift, too.  And I'm sure it was homemade, wich makes it even more fun. :)

Lovely Lakeside

Late summer always reminds me of lakes....or lakes always remind me of late summer.

They go hand in hand.

Living by a lake, you could have a dining area on your own private dock... 

Perfect for those lazy nights...after boating all day.

You could decorate it with twinkle lights...

Living by a lake would be so great, wouldn't it?

You could have a dock of your own...complete with a seating area on the end.  Doesn't that just scream late summer?! 

Yes.  Yes, it does.

Nautical Bedroom

{Three Men and a Lady} just created the cutest little bedroom for her son!

It's a nautical bedroom.  Love the oars.

Love the sailboats hanging from the ceiling...and those cute curtains!

Love the bedding.

Seriously love the way this dresser is decorated!!  Love the suitcases, the rope, the sailboats, the flag, the bouys.

Again, love those sailboats and curtains.

And this little table is perfect for a child's room!

And there's the slightest stripes painted on the walls... Such a good job.

Bright Colors Party

I feel like the THING right now is to create these lavish parties with all sorts of themes and decorations.

But sometimes, I really just like plain and simple parties...like the ones my mom used to put on.  This one is cute.  Just bright colors.  And look how cute it is.

Wouldn't this m&m hopscotch cake from Martha Stewart go well with it?  Cute ideas.

My Ruffle Collar Tutorial

  I got the idea for this shirt {here}...it's just taken me a while to make it. :)

So, here's what I used:

a tshirt from Old Navy and an 1/8 yard of fake silk fabric.

Step 1: cut a strip of fabric the width of what you're wanting the ruffle to be.  Gather the edges with a small gather stitch.

Just so it won't fray down to nothing...cause that's what this fabric does.

Step 2: Roll the end and stitch it, and roll it again and stitch it.  Stitch that, so the rolled edge is underneath at the shoulder seams. 

Then, fold the fabric underneath itself in pleats and pin them all the way around the neckline.  I was not precise about these at all... in fact I wanted them to be uneven.

Step3: Stitch the fabric to the shirt on the side where the end will lay underneath the other end.  I did two rows of stitching, because I was a little worried about the fraying edges.  I like the way they look, but I was worried they'd waste away to nothing.

Step 4: Pin the pleats down over the row you just stitched and stitch that side.

Step 5: Stitch the other side of the fabric to the shirt so both the tops and the bottoms of the fabric strips are completely adhered to the shirt.

Ta Da!

Here it is.  I love it. 

My husband thinks it "looks home made" ... not the best compliment, but he's referring to the frayed edges which is totally the look I was going for.  If you don't want them frayed, fold the edges under. :)