{31 Days} Initial Mugs

 

Day 9: Initial Mugs

I'm running a little late on this Tuesday so I needed a quick DIY for my 31 days challenge.  I found this tutorial on Pinterest over a year ago and also picked up the white mugs from the thrift store not long after! They had the mugs on sale for 10 cents each so I stocked up! I thought these initial mugs would make great gifts with some homemade hot chocolate this Christmas.

 I started with my three white mugs and washed each one so they were good and clean.

 Next, I sketched on the initial and name with a plain Sharpie marker.

Then I baked the mugs in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Let the mugs completely cool and then you are good to go. These mugs are hand-wash only and not dishwasher safe! Great simple gift and easy DIY!!

I am behind on my schedule for this 31 days! Last week I had each post written at least a day if not two in advance. But I have been feeling a bit sickly and falling down on my job! I will get better at this!!

9 down! 22 to go!

{31 Days} Big Things Baby Gift

Day 7: Big Things Baby Gift

On this lazy Sunday afternoon, I needed a simple DIY project to complete for today. Baby Rhett celebrated his first birthday this past week and we are heading up to see him and his parents this weekend. I wanted to create something for the little man and after seeing this quote on Pinterest, I knew what it was that I was going to make.

I thought it was a great saying for a nursery. I grabbed an old sketch book from my college days and had fun doodling this fun little print.

I had a frame at home so this was a simple project I completed in about 15 minutes!

Anyone have any cute gift ideas for baby Rhett to go with this print?

7 down! 24 to go!

{31 Days} Do Whatcha Gotta Do

Day 6: Do Whatcha Gotta Do

Just getting this post in in the nick of time! The reason- David and I had a garage sale and are completely worn out! We pulled a late night last night- later than this old married couple ever see- and then worked from sun up til sun down today!

Sometimes, as a DIY hoarder, you do what you got to do to make space in the junk room and keep the husband happy!! I sadly had to part with some of my projects at today's sale. I had a small business dream a little over a year ago that I would hunt down great deals on furniture and bring it home to fix up and sale for a profit- but that dream didn't get too far past a collection of chairs, a few tables, and one large dinning set before I soon realized that these projects take time and that is time I didn't really have. So I sadly said goodbye to quite a few today but... I saved just a couple to hopefully get to soon!! We'll see!

Sorry there is no fun DIY project today! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

6 down! 25 to go!!

{31 Days} Vintage Mail Collector

Day 5: Vintage Mail Collector

(Now I don't know if this project would be considered a DIY project but it is one of those "why did it take me so long to do this?" projects!!)

I have a sweet spot for vintage anything and when I spotted this cute little green dust pan I had to have it!

I knew immediately that it would be a great place to collect our mail which normally piles up on the kitchen table until we finally decide to go through it! But when I told my husband about my plan, he thought I had to be crazy! Hang an old dust pan on the wall?

BUT a few months later I saw this in the HGTV Magazine! This was all I needed to convenience David I wasn't completely crazy after all!!

HGTV Magazine

Deggum! They beat me to it! But I finally did what I set out to do a few months ago! I hung our mail station by two nails in the handle. I hope one day to find a cute little hook but it works for now!!

 

The size is just right- it doesn't hold a months worth of mail so it will require that we stay on top of the ever growing pile! Anyone have any great tips at keeping the mail organized? Any fun mail stations around your place? 

5 down! 26 to go!!

{31 Days} Doggie Car Hammock

Day 4: Doggie Car Hammock

David and I had the opportunity to do a little road-tripping this summer and we decided to bring our little pooch along with us! Anyone with a lab knows they have a lot of hair and that hair gets EVERYWHERE! To try and keep the dog hair situation under control, I made a doggie car hammock to drape over the back seat!

Dog car seat covers can cost quite a bit if we were to have bought one from the store. I knew I could make one for a better price and the color would be prettier too! : )  I found a great tutorial on pinterest that I used as a guide. For this project, I used:

3 yards of upholstery weight cotton fabric
3 yards of fleece fabric
3 yards of cotton strapping
sewing machine/thread/pins
patience! (I got a "new" old sewing machine and had a heck of a time figuring it out!)

I first started by measuring the back seat of my car (length and width). I chose to use three yards of fabric for the length of the hammock. It is extra long and reaches down to the floorboard. I could have probably been safe with only two yards but my thinking at the time was that if I made it longer it would also work in our Jeep. Now- I don't think we could. I simply used the width of the fleece fabric to determine how wide the hammock would be.

When I got home with the fabric, I washed and dried the cotton fabric and strapping to prevent shrinkage once it was sewn and washed. Then I laid the fabric out on the floor- cotton fabric face down and then the fleece centered on top, pretty side up. Leave at least a 2" border of cotton around the fleece fabric. I then folded the cotton fabric in 1" inch and then folded again 1". This made a 1" double thick border (the "binding") around the fleece fabric. I then pinned everything in place.

This was the trickiest part trying to get everything to line up straight. At the corners, the tutorial said to make a "quilting corner". I had no idea how to do that but this is how mine ended up looking after I pinned. (Probably not correct- but it worked for me!!)

After all sides and corners were pinned and ready to go, I got the "ok" from Quality Control and then headed back to my sewing table!

 

The tutorial said to sew a 1/4" seam around the binding. I did that but maybe didn't sew completely straight so to ensure that the fleece was secure in the binding I went around a second time about 1/4" from the opposite edge of the binding. 

The next step is to find the placement and length for the headrest straps. I made the two straps that wrap around the backseat headrests long enough to slip completely over the headrest. For the front two straps, I made them pretty short so the hammock stayed tight between the two front seats. So for these two, I have to remove the headrests to put the hammock in place. Once I found the correct length, I pinned each strap.

 

 I sewed the straps on from the back. To make sure the straps were secure I sewed in a zig-zag stitch down the left side, reversed stitched back up, and then reversed again back down- across, reverse, across on the bottom and up, reverse, up on the right side. I decided to forgo the buckles on the straps (from the tutorial) because I thought that would be the first thing to break with my wild man pulling and tugging all over hammock. 

Berkley did great on our trips. This hammock got quite a bit of use with us being on the road for four weekends in a row! And I'm sure it will get a lot of use in the future! 

"Are we there yet?"

4 Down! 27 to go!!