diy side table + black walls

We had been looking for side tables and nightstands for a long time and I was always so frustrated with the high prices for such a small piece of furniture. I saw a tutorial online for these mid-century-inspired side tables and we decided to try making one. It's made out of a giant cake pan! (We spray painted the cake pan, stained the legs and top, and then assembled it.) It was easy to put together and now I'm just trying to decide where to put it. I kind of like it against our new black wall.

After painting a small section of wall black in our kitchen, I've been dying to try painting a whole wall black and finally did it in our piano room. (It's actually a really dark gray.) This room doesn't quite have a solid purpose yet and mostly just becomes a dumping ground for all kinds of random stuff. Some day we'll get furniture in there and get it put together. But I love the dark and light contrast.

bedroom makeover: stenciled wall

I didn't know if I would ever do a stenciled wall again after the honeycomb stencil I did in our last house (seen here). It took FOREVER. But the stencil was small and the wall was big. I decided to give it another try with a smaller wall in the girls' room and a much bigger stencil. It was still tedious, time-consuming work, but it went so much faster than last time. I think I finished in a week, working on it in several two and three hour sessions. I was listening to the Serial podcast at the time so that kept me entertained while I painted. It was actually some enjoyable quiet time for me while Ben kept the kids busy. First I had to paint all of the walls white and then bought several paint samples to find the right shades of coral. I decided to do two colors on the stencil and I'm so glad I did. The best part about a stenciled wall is how cheap it is. It only took 3 sample size containers of paint to do the whole wall.

Elsa stepped in and helped me when my hand got too tired.

After painting one Saturday evening, I came downstairs to find this massive fort the kids had built.

We decided it was time for the girls to sleep in twin size beds instead of the modified Ikea toddler bunk beds Ben made for them when Oliver was born (seen here). Twin beds would fit best in the room that Simon was in so we ended up switching all of the kids' rooms around. Oliver now sleeps on the bottom bunk in the girls' old room and Simon is still in his crib in Oliver's old room.

I had originally planned to do coral and gold but the girls really wanted blue so we went with some teal accents. I still have some things to hang on the walls and we're looking for a few more pieces of furniture to complete the room. The nightstand is an antique piece we picked up at a flea market in Arlington several years ago. It's been through a few different colors. The girls have loved having beds next to each other and have stayed up talking to each other more than they did in their bunk beds. Amelia is obsessed with making her bed. It was always too hard to do on the top bunk. The first thing she does when she gets up is make her bed. Elsa hasn't quite caught on yet. 

And what the room usually looks like.

Elsa turns 6: bicycle wash!

Ben and I decided to make this fun bicycle car wash for Elsa's birthday. We used this tutorial, though I've seen several other versions online too. It was really quite easy to put together. Ben assembled the pipes in no time and then we stayed up late one night adding all the decorations. I had some midnight inspiration to cut the letters of Elsa's name out of the hanging sponges for some added fun. All the kids had a great time riding their bikes through it (and just running through it). Some of the neighbor kids showed up to use it too. Oliver and Simon were especially fond of the bubble machine we added for a fun effect.

camping birthday party: behind the scenes

I was happy to have an excuse to try some new craft projects and do some screen printing. I was out of photo emulsion and didn't want to buy more (screen printing can be an expensive hobby!) so I decided to DIY it and made my own screen with an embroidery hoop and sheer curtain material. I drew the bear on the screen and then painted Mod Podge everywhere that I didn't want to print. The Mod Podge blocks the ink from getting through the material. And that's it! Once the screen is made, printing is the fun part. Anybody want a bear printed on something? I still have the screen...

I found a guy on Craigslist who had cut down some trees and was giving the wood away for free. Ben stopped by and picked up some nice stumps to use for our fire pit seating and a few extra to carve up for decoration and my cake stands. If your party prep involves a chain saw, you're off to a good start.

Cutting fabric with my Silhouette. Still amazed by this crazy machine.

The fire pit turned out to be a super easy project. I think Ben built it in about 30 minutes. Most of the effort was in hauling the bricks from the car to the backyard.

Frosting and assembling the cakes took much longer than I thought. I really don't know much about building/decorating cakes. I snapped a few photos while I was doing it in case something went terribly wrong later (like dropping them while carrying them outside).

screen printing: scarves

I love the handmade gifts I get from my siblings. This Christmas I received a beautiful bracelet, an alphabet book a year in the making, and the coolest snowman kit ever. And of course the fairy house. I try to come up with a handmade gift each year. Sometimes I do (muffin tin advents and pendant necklaces). Sometimes I don't. This year I decided to screen print something.

My dear friend (and master screen printer) Kristilyn printed a fantastic scarf for me a few years ago and I wear it all the time. I decided to try and print some myself. I used the American Apparel jersey scarves which are super comfy. Although next time I think I'll attempt to buy fabric and cut my own.

There are always a few goofs along the way, but generally they turned out okay. I printed a few totes for the girls too.

here we come a-wassailing...

We decided to go old school (circa 1850) with our neighbor gifts this year. My sister-in-law had made us a yummy wassail mix a few years ago so I used her recipe to mix up several batches for friends. I packaged some in jars and some in bags from last year's screen printed neighbor gift. And threw on a bundle of cinnamon sticks for fun.

We probably should have sung a few old-timey carols when we delivered these...

the table.

We've never been in love with our table. It was sturdy and could expand to a very useful size. But it wasn't our style. And it had upholstered chairs. Upholstered chairs with kids = worst idea ever. It was getting pretty worn and instead of refinishing it, we sold it on Craigslist to a very excited man who thought he could fit it in the back of his small VW (I can't tell you how many people have shown up at our house in small VWs to haul huge Craigslist items).

And then Ben built us a table. We came up with a design and Ben built the table top. We ordered the steel hairpin legs online. And voila. A table we are in love with.

It was actually a fairly easy process. But somehow still took a few months. The hard part being finding the time (daylight hours with good weather so Ben could work outside). Building the actual table top only took a few hours. We had a hard time getting the stain just right. Stained it, didn't like it, sanded the whole thing down and started again. We ended up mixing a few different colors.

We got the chairs online. They're light, stackable, and EASY TO CLEAN! We plan to either buy two more mismatched chairs or Ben might build a bench.

Next up is a makeover for the rest of the dining room...

Ben's favorite new tool: the kreg jig!