A dress redo!

So I bought this shirt and I love it.  I wear it under a cute little grey sweater and it looks fun and fashionable.haha (Pardon the bad lighting in the pictures, I couldn't wait to post this.)

And I bought this dress last year on clearance for 10.00, but the top didn't fit and I forgot to return it. I cleaned out my closet this year and found it!  I loved the fabric and I couldn't return it so I started to think what could I do with it and then I remembered the grey polka dot shirt and thought "hey wait a minute here!"

See isn't it cute???

First I cut off the halter part of the blue dress. Then I stretched out the grey shrit and layed it on my dress for a pattern. Then I stitched the arm wholes, and a neck line. I took the original straps from the halter and used those for the tie part, notice the little wooden beads, I love those and thought I could use them. I didn't even have to put a hem in the bottom because I just cut from the top of the dress.  It turned out great!  I LOVE it!  I need to make or find a brown cover up to wear with it.

~toodles~ Laura

One of my pet peeves!

Do you have a pet peeve?  I have a few, they aren't things that I stew over everyday but little things that I just don't understand why companies can't fix these,  so today I am sharing one of them. I am addicted to lotion, I cannot go without lotion on my hands so I have a pump bottle of lotion at my kitchen and bathroom sink and on my desk at my office.  Here is the part that bothers me, have you ever noticed how much lotion is still in the bottle when the pump no longer works??? Half a bottle, that's how much!  Ok, so I am exaggerating a bit but there is alot left in the bottle. I have kept track before and it lasted my another 6 weeks.  Check out my solution.

This is the type of bottle I am talking about, it doesn't matter what brand, they all have the same problem.

I get out my handy dandy knife and cut the bottle in half.

You see I am not kidding there is another half of an inch of lotion in there!!!! How wasteful to just throw that away.  We can keep a baby in a diaper for a week without changing it now and have bubbles that attack grime and bleach that doesn't take the color out of clothing, why can't we have lotion bottles that use up ALL of the product? I'm ranting, sorry!!!

Enough fussing, here is the solution until someone comes up with a brilliant answer. I cut the bottle in half  then I cut slits down both halves on each side, that is 4 cuts.  Then I take the pump and cut about an inch off of the bottom of it, that part you have to play with, depends on how much you are going to push the bottle down in the other half.

Simple huh??? ( I think my sister taught me this, so I really shouldn't take any credit!) I just pushed one half of the bottle on top of the other making the bottle shorter now so the pump reaches the left over lotion (the slits make this possible) and now I can use it. Eventually even this won't work then I just stick the leftovers in a little jar I carry in my purse.  It's good to the last drop!  (Is that a coffee commercial???)

A close up and side view so you can see what I have done.  I need to come up with a marketable solution to this like the people who invented that thing that lets you use all of your toothpaste.  So tell me... what bothers you and do you have a solution??? I am working on a solution for the end of my deodorant, it always fall off the stick at the end!!!! @#%!

Furniture shopping inspirationPart II

So I mentioned a few days ago about going to a home furniture store and really being inspired by some of their furniture and their art. I could not believe how much of what they had could be very easily reproduced at a fraction of the cost. Check out this picture, how easy would this be? If you can't draw don't worry about it.  Find a drawing of  a chandelier that you like on the internet and blow it up to the size you want.  You can get graphite paper in white.  Trace over your design onto black paper and then go over it loosely a couple more times.  Super easy.  I think I am going to have to make one of these and the lamp!  I saw a chandelier at Goodwill and didn't buy it and now I wish I had, it would have been perfect to make into a lamp like this one! Look below at this artwork.  Can you imagine useing stamps and scrapbook paper?  I think it would be cute to use real paper doll clothing.  You can find all kinds of styles at a bookstore. These would be so cuuuuutttteee in a bathroom.

 It doesn't get much simpler than this.  Find some neat wrapping paper at a Hallmark or a nice gift shop, you could even use wallpaper. Pick up some second hand frames at a thriftstore and you have art for near to nothing!  That's my favorite kind of art!!!

This would work great with a piece of graphic fabric.  Check out the bins with remnants, you don't need more than a yard.  Simply nail some 2x2's together to form a frame and stretch and staple the fabric onto the frame.  It would even look really cool if you found several coordinating fabrics and made smaller ones.

This one looks more complicated but not really.  Get clear contact paper and cut out a bunch of leaves and stems and place them on a white canvas and then paint over it.  This canvas has a faux finish look to it that doesn't show up in the picture.  Then take a brighter orange a paint a few leaves.  You could do this with lots of designs, not just a tree.

It doesn't get any simpler than this.  You can't tell from the picture but these were hung at different depths. I am sure they had spacers behind the CD's so that some stuck out further from the wall.  Perfect for a teenagers room.

I think this is such a cool idea.  Make a map.  Perfect for a pirate room. My son used to have a travel themed room, this would have been just the right touch.  It looked like bulletin board paper or even brown packaging paper, wrinkled up and painted over.  It had a real aged look to it. Look at the rose compass next to it.  I made one of these for my sons room.  Very simple.  I bought a circle already cut out from the hardward store.

A closer look!

This could be done with paint or with scrapbook paper.  It had a bit of texture in the middle.  Take some spackling and a stencil and place it on your background and take a putty knife and scrape it over the stencil.  Once it dries you can antique it or you could mix some paint in with the spackling before you use it. These are all great ideas and could be used in so many places in your home.  I think I need more wall space.  Were you inspired by anything?  If you make something be sure to share with me what you have done!

~toodles~ Laura