Remember my post a while ago about my refinished side table? Well, if you remember, it was a set of three nesting tables. The red one is the largest and then I have two smaller ones. I loved my red one so much that I had to change the other ones too. My bedroom follows a brown and blue theme, so I painted the two tables to fit in with that. One was painted blue to sit by my bed and one was painted yellow to add a pop of color between two chairs. I just love them! I followed the exact same steps as my red table and they turned out great. I love that they look brand new and they add so much to my now not-so boring room.

Hee hee! Isn't this the cutest picture ever? I love this little sweetie. I also have a new niece coming in September, so I'm making all things girlie these days. When I found out my sister-in-law wanted to make some hair clips and headbands, I promised her a few tutorials. This one is perfect for Little Lizard King's hair bow tutorial yesterday, and my rosette tutorial coming up next week. There are probably hundreds of tutorials out there for these stretchy baby headbands, but this one is for you, Amy!

Easy Stretchy Baby Headband Tutorial

What you'll need:

*Pair of clean tights or thick nylon stockings (I found of pack of three bright colors at Walmart for $2!)--you could also use knit fabric, like an old t-shirt

*Rotary cutter or scissors

*Sewing machine and thread

1. Measure your baby's head circumference. As a general measurement, I use about 12" for newborns and 15" for 6-12 months. But every baby is different! The great thing is that the nylon is super stretchy and soft.



2. Using a rotary cutter or scissors, cut your length and cut off the toe of the tights (if necessary).


3. Tuck one open end into the other. If you want to get all fancy, fold over the raw edge and pin. I'm not very fancy.


4. Using a basting stitch (stitch length of 5), sew across where you overlapped the ends.



5. Pull one of the bottom threads to gather slightly.


6. Flatten out and, using a straight stitch with a normal stitch length (not basting), sew over the top of your basting stitch to secure the gather.

I think it's totally cute like this! You could stop here for a plain ruffled headband.


7. Cut another piece of your tights across the leg, about 1.5" to 2" wide.


8. Fold over this piece around the headband and stitch together. I used a zig-zap stitch.



9. Turn inside out so you can't see your seam and position over your gathered section. You can tack it down with a couple of stitches to keep it in place.



Wear it plain like this, or add a cute flower clip.


Just clip your bow or flower onto the middle section.



Complete cuteness.


Here's one I made out of an old t-shirt. I added ruffles and a flower made out of the same t-shirt. I love the raw edges. Shabby and e-a-s-y. Now go decorate a baby!

Today is a great day because we get to hear from my sweet friend Bethany. She's at it again with some great ways to re-purpose beautiful vintage handkerchiefs and doilies. Yea for us!


I've had this stash of vintage handkerchiefs from my grandma for a long time & have been wanting to do something with them, besides letting them take up drawer space! All are in pristine condition & have such sweet detail on them. (I imagine that the ones that have embroidery on them were too good to use after the person spent time on the intricate handiwork!)


For the first project, a Hanky Table Runner, I simply choose five of my favorite hankies that were about the same size. I used hankies that were approximately 13.5" square. I ironed each hanky to make sure the edges were nice & flat, layed them out in the order I liked and then, using a 1/4" seam, simply sewed them edge to edge. I pressed the seams flat & voila! A pretty little table runner was born. Can't you just see this used on a table for a garden party or bridal shower?




The next two projects, I made hanky buntings. Using my rotary cutter, quilting ruler & mat, I simply cut various hankies in half. Using a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine & some white bias tape, I sewed each half of hanky along the bias tape.



For the second bunting, I cut various yellow & white hankies on the diagonal & stitched those to a length of yellow seam binding. These just shout summer tea party to me & wouldn't they look so pretty waving in a gentle breeze?




Since I was in bunting mode, I also made one by cutting doilies in half and sewing those to a heavy twill tape, again with zig zag stitch. I so appreciate the handiwork of vintage doilies & again, had a stash from Grandma's treasures that I wasn't sure what to do with - since doilies on the end tables aren't exactly my decorating style! I love how this gives me a little more modern way of displaying these beautiful vintage textiles.



Thanks, Bethany! Isn't she amazing? I wish I had that collection of vintage goodness. Lucky girl! Check out Bethany's blog, Ribbon, Glitter, & Glue, for more gorgeous ideas, including some great papercrafting inspiration (think cards and mini albums). I loooove her recent card post which includes cards made with the Earth Love line from Cosmo Cricket. (I just noticed some of the pieces of this line and other Cosmo lines are on sale here!)


And her winning page submission to Citrus Tree Studio's Sketch Challenge using the Thrift Shop line from October Afternoon (one of my all-time fave lines!).

It's almost warm enough for a BBQ here in Western Washington--hooray! Okay, I'm only kind of kidding. We BBQ in the pouring rain if we have to. But as the weather's been perking up, I've been thinking about hosting a backyard dinner with some friends. Until I remembered that my patio furniture was pretty much done. I'd left the wicker chairs out uncovered and the wicker rotted, and at last year's party someone sat on one and went right through the seat! Yikes! The other chairs are okay, but they are pretty weathered. And since patio furniture is on the "wants" list and not the "needs" list, I had to get creative.

Here's one of the chairs before. It used to be a nice, golden brown color. The rain took care of that. This calls for a little outdoor spray paint!


The first step before painting anything is to prep. That means cleaning and taping, and those two steps always seem to take longer than the actual painting! For wicker, use a spray bottle to lightly mist the piece,


then use a soft cloth to wipe off dirt. Or get your kids to do it because a spray bottle always screams "FUN!"


Next, be sure to repair any broken pieces of wicker. I glued some of the longer ones down with wood glue, and trimmed the shorter ones.


If you're spray painting an outdoor wicker piece, be sure to choose an indoor/outdoor spray paint. Tape off any metal parts you don't want to be painted, then spray from left to right in even sweeps. I did two coats on my set (chairs and table).


For my broken chair, I cut the wicker seat off completely. Now this part is kind of laughable, and not at all professional, but it totally worked! I cut long strips of commercial grade upholstery fabric (because a friend gave it to me for free--you could also use upholstery webbing, available at fabric stores like JoAnn, or even Walmart). Then I sewed them together end-to-end to create a very long strip. Then I tied one end to my starting point. Wrapping them around the bars of the original seat, I essentially created a basket weave seat to replace my broken one.



Don't worry--this is not going to be seen. I added a coat of paint just to make it less noticeable.


Now for the great cover-up. I found cushy chair pads at Walmart for $10. Once they're on, you don't even see my ugly basket weave job! And it's sturdy enough that we won't have to worry about another comic event at this year's BBQ. Party at my house, everyone!

When my husband was in high school he made a beautiful oak dresser. We still have it and I love it. It is very sturdy and looks great. The only problem is that I have always disliked the gold coated handles on it. They just seemed so out of date.

I recently asked my husband if I could spray paint the handles to give them a new look and much to my delight he was all for it! I picked up some hammered-finish black spray paint to match the wrought iron trim on my bed and about five minutes later I had new dresser handles. It was so simple to unscrew all the handles and spray them in my garage. After they were dry I screwed them back onto the dresser. Don't they look so much better? It is such a simple, inexpensive way to update any handles you might have!