Contoured Reclaimed Wood Frames

If you have been reading my blog you know that we recently started building frames as a business.  It has been a great experience.  We are still SUPER small and sell mostly to locals or customers who have found us through Oh Sweet Sadie Boutique.  We build every frame ourselves and I hand paint each frame myself.  And I love it! 

During our first show my husband stumbled upon some wood that was being thrown away in a job site dumpster.  He realized that the contoured wood was perfect to make our unique frames.  And since then we have been making both our regular 1x4 in., 1x6 in. frames and contoured frames. 

The contoured wood frames are very rustic.  The pieces don't always meet exactly and some have knots or uneven edges.  I love naturalness of the wood.

 

 

 

 

The striped frame is contoured and the lemon print is 1x4in wood.

 

Another close up.

 

That is just a few of the pictures of our contoured wood frames.  It is difficult to see in the picture.  But it is Gorgeous in person.  We can build these in any size picture frame up to a size 11x14.  We can design frames to match any color, fabric, or color combinations you would like and will be accepting orders through Etsy soon. 

 

 

 

 

The Settee

I recently reupholstered a small settee/couch for my small sitting room.  I found her at a local thrift store.  She had sat so long in the garage that my husband began threatening to take her back.  So I finally gathered my courage and set to work. 



 Here is the before...

 

The back cushions were shredded--probably by a pet?  I had to replace the back foam because of holes and stains.

 

 

 

I whitewashed the legs and wood trim. I am happy with the result. 

 

It was a great learning experience and hopefully my upholstery skills will keep improving!

Maybe I will take a class...

 

The pillows I whipped up to add a little drama, they are 26x26 pillows.  I found the fabric (both the upholstery and pillows) on the remnant table at Hancock Fabrics.  One of my favorite places to look for scrap fabric.

 

 

Without the pillows....

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting!  I will have some new posts soon.  My camera and computer are finally working again!!

 

 

 

 

Service Meals--The Worlds Best Lasagna Recipe

Yesterday, I spent several hours in the kitchen cooking dinner for 3 different families.  They were my neighbors (a huge family of 11, who just had a baby), my husband's sister and her family (who recently moved), and my family, too.  I love cooking for other people and I love serving others with food.  Don't get me wrong, cooking for that many people is stressful and not easy.  But it gets easier the more you do it.
I love taking dinner to sick friends, or taking dinner to new moms!  This time, I decided to cook Lasagna.  I have been making "The Worlds Best Lasagna" from allrecipes.com for several years now and it is my go-to Lasagna recipe.  I've tried many others but this is BY FAR my favorite. Here are a few tips and tricks...

1.  I omit the fennel--I am not a big fan plus most Italian sausage already has plenty, why add more?
2. Splurge on a good Sausage--mine was still only $2.99/lb at Harmon's, a local grocer who makes over 20 different kinds of sausage
3. Try a Hot Italian sausage for a little SPICE and HEAT
4.  Doubling the sauce recipe makes 3 generous Lasagnas-- I made four out of this but ran out before I could completely make the 4th Lasagna(ours) but lucky for me nobody noticed
5. I substitute Sour cream for the Ricotta Cheese + Egg mixture.  I hate the texture of Ricotta, you can also substitute with Cottage Cheese but I like the creaminess and slightly tangy flavor of sour cream.  This is a secret from my Aunt Becky, who always made mouth watering Lasagnas.
6. If you are not using fresh mozzarella cheese--Costco has the best price for pre-shredded mozzarella cheese, Sams Club is less expensive for Parmesan Cheese.
7. This Lasagna can be made in advance, make a day ahead and store in the fridge or freeze it for another day.

In addition to the lasagna, I made a huge green salad with tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, and pepperoncini peppers and cheese, served with Olive Garden Salad Dressing ($6.98 for two bottles at Sams Club.) I also bought Several loaves of  French Bread, and Ice cream cookie sandwiches from Costco.  If I had more time I would have made the French Bread into Garlic Bread and made homemade cookies.  But who has time for all that on a weeknight?

So try making yourself some mouth watering Lasagna or better yet make 2 and take one to a family who needs it!  It really is easy, a little time consuming, but worth it! and SO much better than the store-bought versions!

What do you make when taking dinner to someone else's family?

"Until we meet again."

 

Sherwin Williams 40% off Sale

Hey all!  It is National Painting Week, and Sherwin Williams 40% off sale starts tomorrow April 19-21, 2013.  If you will be spending over $50 be sure to print off the $10 off $50 coupon that is available on the Sherwin Williams website, you CAN use this in addition to the sales price.  Also all painting supplies are 30% off.

This is my favorite way to buy new colors of paint.  I am always trying new colors but hate spending a ton of money only to find that the color is not quite right!  Sherwin Williams sells sample quarts and with the 40% off they are super cheap at $4-$5 a piece.  This is not the best quality paint but for projects that you will be priming and then sealing it is an inexpensive way to try a bold color at a smaller investment.  Also I always wait for this sale to buy certain painting supplies like, tack cloth and foam rollers.

This is a GREAT sale to jump on if you need paint!

 

Happy National Painting Week!

 



Semi-Homemade Minky Blankets

Last year I made several minky blankets for babies.  The first one was for my niece.  This blanket actually was not semi-homemade but SO easy.  I bought about 1 1/4 yards minky fabric and 1 1/4 yards of a cute pink cotton fabric.  I wanted it to be a little larger than your average baby blanket so I used the full 1 1/4 yards, cleaning up the cut edges so that they were straight. 

Pin the fabric right sides together, surge or zigzag around the perimeter, pulling out the pins as you go and leaving a small opening.  Pull the fabric inside out through opening.

 

 

Tuck the openings raw edges under to match the rest of the sewn edges and pin shut.  Sew again using sewing machine single stitch around perimeter again about 1/4 or 1/2 inch from edge.  And you are done.  That is about as easy as it gets.

The next blankets I made in a hurry I was invited to a baby shower for a friend having twins, and  didn't want to spend the time and money buying the minky so I ran to Ross to pick up some inexpensive baby blankets $4.99--which is a steal for minky and the blanket binding. Her nursery colors are blue and green.  I found two matching bright blue blankets, ran to hobby lobby next to pick up some green fabric and thread and went to work.

 

First I unpicked the blanket binding from the Ross blanket.

 

 

Next I cut my fabric to the same size as the minky blanket and pinned them to gether this time wrondg sides together, because the binding covers the raw edges.  Here you can stitch or surge  the fabric and blanket together for a stronger hold.

 

 

Next wrap the binding back around the blanket as before and pinning in place on one side.

 

 

Next flip the blanket over and pin again.  The goal is to make sure that the binding does not move and is fitted evenly to both sides.

 

 

Next topstitch carefully along the same lines as the binding was sewn on before. I ending up using blue thread and not the green pictured, I am not the best at sewing straight and my lines did not show up as much using the matching thread.

 

 

Then I folded the blanket and put it back on its original hanger, and it is now gorgeous and one of a kind, well in this case,  two of a kind.

 

Happy Sewing!

 

 

 

A New Attitude

I came into blogging with a desire to share my projects and to help others. If my only readers are my sweet sisters, that was okay with me. But as soon as I started blogging and reading TOO many other fabulous blogs and scanning pinterest and comparing myself to others I started to doubt myself. I started trying to determine which post was "blog worthy" and which wasn't and half my projects were never posted. 

It has been a few months since my last post, and I am okay with that. I am not here to have a million sponsors and followers or make a gazillion dollars, (although that would be nice.) I am not here to spend every second of my life on the internet and ignoring everything else.  No, my goal is to help others. To encourage one person to try something they didn't think they could. Because if I can do it, ANYONE can. And I sincerely mean that. I am just a normal stay at home mom of four children, who loves to be creative and cook on a budget. That's it. 

And so with a new and improved attitude, I will be posting several transformations from the last little while that haven't made it to my blog. I also will be sharing some of my frames that I have been making for our local boutiques. I love making frames because they allow me to be daring, creative --I am kind of a wimp--and colorful on a small scale. No two are exactly alike ever. Sometimes its the structure of the frame, or the colors, or the way they distress is different. I love the variety--and how each frame takes on its own unique beauty. 

Thank you to my sweet mom and sisters who always encourage me and to my husband who always fills in the gaps when I need help!