Have You Been Left Behind?

Just wanted to let y'all know....
If your seeing this page then you've been left behind. Please go to www.domesticimperfection.com to keep up!

Radio Silent

Hey everyone! I thought I would just pop in with a little update and let y'all know that you won't be hearing from me for a little while longer. I'm in the middle of my big move to wordpress and won't be doing another import from blogger. I'm also not  ready to redirect this blog to wordpress yet... sooo I'm just going to take a blogging break. I am, however, using this little sabbatical to check some bigger projects off my list... so hopefully those will be all finished and ready to reveal over at the new site!
In the meantime, I was tagged by Julie over at Crafty Imaginings & Silly Things in a game of blog tag, so here are my answers to Julies questions....
1. What is your all-time favorite book? The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers. Awesome.  I did just buy the first book of The Hunger Games... it seems I'm the only person in America that isn't raving about it, so that will be my next read.
2. One word that describes you? Tired, lol. I know that's a cop-out answer, but it's true.
3. What is your dream job? Making a decent income off my blog would be amazing. 
4. What are you most proud of? My family...they're pretty much the best thing ever (even if they are the reason for my answer to #2).5. Cook or eat out? Eating out is so expensive, so that's not my favorite...but at home I have to do all the work. But kids in a restaurant....but dishes. I don't know. It's a tie.
6. “Must watch” shows on your DVR? We don't have a DVR, or cable, or get a single channel on our TV. Adam and I do watch TV on our laptop before bed though...we watch Modern Family, Up All Night, 30 Rock, Once Upon A Time, The Office, The Middle and random others. During the day it's all Curious George though.
7. Biggest pet peeve? When people use an exclamation point after every sentence. It's seems disingenuous and basically drives me bonkers. I'm on the other end though, I usually go through posts before publishing and force myself to add a few exclamation points. I don't want y'all to think I'm not a happy excited person or anything...especially since I tend to be sarcastic, and through text only that seems to come off as just mean and grumpy. I promise, in real life I'm actually quite delightful!8. How long have you been blogging? A little over a year.
9. What is your favorite room in your home and why? Hmm, probably my living room. And once it's not our garage/shed/workshop anymore I'm going to love our giant front porch. 
10. What is your go-to easy dinner recipe (for those times when your projects have taken over!!)? Spaghetti, frozen pizza, a big salad or grilled cheese and tomato soup.
11. What was the last thing you pinned on Pinterest? I'll have to go check...a coffee table with little benches added to make a kids table.

That's all for now..see y'all on the other side!
(Also, I know I've said this like fourteen thousand times now...but if you follow through Google Friend Connect, then please find a new way to follow. Choices are on my sidebar ----->)

The Cutest Table I Ever Hated

 I'm going to start this post off a little different than normal and show you the finished product first.

See this adorable little table?

It was a total pain in the butt. Projects going wrong before they go right seems to be a theme around here.

I bought the table back in January for $10 at a thrift store. I actually finished it during No Spend February

 but couldn't show it to you because it was part of the Every Creative Endeavor contest (it won first place in round two!).

Here is the before picture...

(In case your wondering where my crappy $5 table went, it now happily resides on the other side of the couch.)

So here's the process. It may seem like I did this in a matter of hours or a day or something...it actually took about a week of being an in-progress mess on  my kitchen floor (aka my workshop). Just FYI.

First, the boys and I sanded,

and then removed all the hardware.

Next came the painting. This piece wasn't the easiest to paint...I was really wishing I had cheated and stocked up on white spray paint before February started. 

I wanted to do a design on the top, so I painted the octagon insert blue (left over from the toy box - which I had mixed from leftover kitchen paint. Resourceful, yes. Cheap, you bet!).

For this part I turned to my friend Katie from CRAPTASTIC, who did a tutorial for her zebra table.

First I taped off the outside..

then completely filled it with painters tape (This is frog tape).

I decided to copy the leaf pattern from a chair I have in the living room, so I tried to trace and transfer it using parchment paper. 

It wasn't working out all that well though, so I ditched that idea and decided to free hand it.

 Much easier.

Next I cut it out using an exacto knife...while wearing my painting uniform of course. I swear I wear regular clothes sometimes!

Then I gave it a quick coat with the base color again. The top is textured and I wanted to keep the lines crisp, this way the base coat fills all the cracks instead of the pattern color. I didn't let it dry all the way before applying the leaf color - which was the base color mixed with white. 

Then came the exciting part - taking the tape off to reveal my perfectly crisp leaf pattern. 

Except that's not even close to what happened. 

I caaaaaarefully peeled back the tape.....and when I was done, well, this is what I was left with. 

I did not freak out -at least not out loud. I hurried over to my pantry and grabbed a ginormo handful of chocolate chips and thought about how I was going to fix it. 

Now, if I wasn't entering it in a contest I would have painted it over in blue and called it a day. After four days of working on it I was pretty over this table. But I WAS entering it and I had to make it work. 

So yeah, I hand painted it. It took two more days worth of nap times... and along the way I really started to hate this table. 

Than goodness it turned out well!

The last step was to glaze it. You can't have a furniture piece with detail like this and not bring it out with glaze, right? I used the same process as I did with my experimental frame and used the base blue color.  

Glazing didn't really go as planned either, but when I compared the finished door with the plain one I had to keep going. 

Next I gave it some super light distressing, put the hardware back, on and was done...finally!

Here is the finished product again....and you know what? I. LOVE. IT. It's the cutest table I ever hated. 

I'm so glad I stuck it out...I love how unique it is. I also love that it only cost ten bucks and was made just for my living room!

No Spend February Review and A Big Announcement

So as it turns out, months go by FAST. I barely got to scratch the surface of my to-do list before February was over. I guess that means that No Spend February was successful in that I didn't spend any money on craft projects, but it was a total bust in the getting-stuff-done department. It's easy not to spend money when you don't do anything, right? Let's review what I DID do this month.
 I revealed my pantry...

 and my curtains & rods

 ...but I completed those in January. The no spend projects weren't nearly as exciting, they were...
my blogiversary pillow giveaway,

change up my letter M,

and some scrap fabric roses.

That's it. I DID, however, complete two big no spend projects - but I'm not allowed to show them to y'all yet. I'm entering them in the Every Creative Endeavor Contest (go vote!) and projects are supposed to be anonymous. I can't wait to show them to you though! I'm not going to designate March as a spend free month - we have some bigger projects planned (like working on the kitchen, YAY!) that are going to cost some $$$.  I am going to continue to knock out projects that I have laying around though, that craft closet is still chock-a-block full of goodies!
So, the big announcement?
I'll be moving to WordPress next month!

I'm attempting the transfer myself, but to be honest it's not going very well and I'll probably end up hiring someone to save me. I'm a computer dunce and the whole thing is stressing me out. I know that I could figure it out eventually, but I'm not sure how many weeks (months?) I'm willing to sacrifice. Plus spending hours upon hours working behind the computer means less time for projects and kids, and that's definitely no bueno.
On that note, Google Friend Connect is leaving non blogger blogs TOMORROW. This means that if you follow by GFC (which most of you do) we will loose our connection as soon as I move. If you'd like to keep getting updates then please choose another way to follow! The options are on my sidebar ------------------->You can choose between Linky, E-mail, RSS, Bloglovin, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter....
That's it for now.... Happy Leap Day everyone!


 

Fabric Scrap and Ric Rac Roses

A couple weeks ago I made some gifts for a friends daughter. It was her second birthday and I decided to jazz up some accessories with  fabric roses. 

Try as I may, I just can't bring myself to do crafty things and not take pictures, so I'm here to share a tutorial with y'all.

 I had first attempted these when I made my guest bedroom frame wall...

I looked up  a few tutorials online, but none of them worked out quite the way I hoped they would. So I scraped the tutorials and just went with it. Here is the method I came up with. It's super simple...in fact, you can probably stop reading right now if you just remember these three words - Wrap, twist, glue... repeat. Okay, so four words. 

If your the type that likes specific directions though, then your gonna love this...

1. Cut out a scrap piece of fabric. Size doesn't really matter, but for reference this one is about two inches wide and two feet long.

 2. Fold in half, mainly just the first six inches or so.

 3. Trim it down to make the first few inches narrower, like so....

 4. Roll it up and glue into place. I used hot glue this time, last time I used needle and thread. Hot glue is WAY easier, as you might imagine. Also fabric glue takes way to long to dry, I tried that and it didn't work.

 5. When you get to the end  of your trimmed part, twist it once and keep wrapping. 

 6. Keep wrapping and twisting, gluing as you go. Please DO NOT over think this, whatever way you do it will turn out pretty darn good. It doesn't really matter how much you twist, or if it's folded in half, or not, or a little or both. Just go with it.

7. When you come to the end of your fabric, glue the end underneath the rose. Done. You should probably not be like me and pick off any hot glue that is showing. I was in a bit of a hurry because I procrastinated making these until about an hour before we had to leave for the party. Taking pictures along the way slowed me down a bit too, but I still had to do it!

The ric rac roses are seriously easy too, this is the first time I've made them. Here is what I did...
1. Take your ric rac and cut two pieces that are equal in length. Then wrap them around each other and sew them together. (I'm sure gluing would work as well).

Here is an example of what I mean - the one on the left I just placed together like a puzzle and sewed,  and the one on the right is wrapped - kinda or like braiding with two pieces. I made successful roses out of both, but I liked the wrapped on better.

2. Here where it gets complicated, so pay attention. 

Roll it up and glue as you go.

 That's it. 

 To prove to you just how easy this is...

See this rose below? My husband made that one. It's actually better than mine...beginners luck is the only sensible explanation.

 Now you add them to whatever you want! I put mine on a little toddler purse...

and a headband...

...and various other things that I didn't have time to take pictures of.

But seriously, you can put them on anything - pillows, lampshades, frames, jewelry - it's all fair game.Happy Crafting!
Linked to:Thrifty Decor Chick, Addicted 2 Decorating, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots & Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring, Miss Mustard Seed, Southern Hospitality, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Thrifty Home,  Beyond the Picket Fence, Oops I Craft My Pants, Between Naps on the Porch, Not Just A Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, I Heart Nap Time, Serenity Now, French Country Cottage, Remodelaholic, Creations By Kara, Homework, The 36th Avenue, Freckled Laundry, Coastal Charm, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Keeping It Simple,  Blue Cricket Design, Be Colorful, Craft O Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Dittle Dattle, Polly Want A Crafter?, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, DIY By Design, The Girl Creative, It's Overflowing, A Girl ans a Glue Gun, Delightful Order, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Southern Lovely, Sew Much Ado, Young & Crafty, Homemaker on a Dime, Be Different Act Normal, Primitive & Proper, Lolly Jane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Lines Across My Face, Making the World Cuter, Fun to Craft, Nifty Thrifty Things, The Crafty Nest, Running with Glitter, Designer Garden, Cherished Bliss, CRAFT, Lil Luna, All Thingz Related, House of Hepworths, Oopsy Daisy, Domestically Speaking, Ginger Snap Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Vintage Wanna Bee, The CSI Project, Crafty Texas Girls

Blogiversary Pillow Winners!

Thank you all for your entries, I wish I could give everyone a set of pillows! Well, I guess technically I could, but that would be a whole helluva lot of sewing!
So the winners are....
#50 - Devon from Green House Good Life - Indoor/Outdoor pillows #30 -morrest1101 from Morris Moments - Green cross hatch pillows#41 - Katrina from Pear Shaped Thoughts - Grey & yellow pillows#6 - Katie from CRAPTASTIC - Houndstooth pillows
Congrats to the winners! Please e-mail your full name and mailing address to domesticimperfection@gmail.com and I will have your pillows covers in the mail!