The Creative Imperative

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Teacher Appreciation: Ruffled Utility Aprons

Someone please tell me whose idea it was to have Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Day in the same week??? Plus we have 3 birthday parties to go to this weekend... I don't want to have to wrap or plan another gift for at least a month!

I was tempted to just buy something for my son's teachers, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. These women are AMAZING and I wanted to do something a little special for them. Seriously, my son absolutely loves them and he has learned so much this year. I never imagined he would be doing so well by age 4; Miss Angie and Miss Katie are like preschooler whisperers!

I decided to make them craft/utility aprons.

Last year Miss Angie commented on the crayon apron I made for my best friend's daughter. I filed that away in my memory bank for such a time as this!

You can find the tutorial here. The dimensions on this one are for an adult, so you can adjust the other tutorial accordingly:
cut waistband to 4" x 60"
cut main piece for apron to 12" x 24" (gathered to 17" at top)

I also changed the pocket width to accommodate the various items stored in the apron. You'll see these are all the "must haves" for a preschool teacher!
-antibacterial wipes
-glue
-scissors
-glue stick
-marker
-hand moisturizer

And there's a loop for scissors.

I have to give a shout out to Mr Creative Imperative for his help! He turned all the "tubes" that make up the waistband and tie for me. It is a tedious job and he did it gladly.

Here is the one I made for the other teacher

And I slipped in a little treat "in case of emergencies"...

chocolate, of course!

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Jamie

This post is linked here: Today's Creative Blog Blue Cricket Design Kurtz Corner Mommy by Day Crafter by Night Cherished Bliss Lines Across My Face Southern Lovely Bear Rabbit Bear French Country Cottage Craft Junkie Too DIY Home Sweet Home Saved by Love Domestically Speaking Funky Junk Interiors Homemaker on a Dime Eisy Morgan The Answer is Chocolate Making the World Cuter Craft-O-Maniac lolly jane 504 Main I Heart Naptime Singing Three Little Birds mad in crafts House of Hepworths Somewhat Simple Chic on a Shoestring Keeping it Simple Be Different Act Normal Sew Can Do Sew Chatty Pinkapotamus The Girl Creative Flamingo Toes Tatertots and Jello Sisters of the Wild West Reasons to Skip the Housework Giggles Glitz and Glam Tip Junkie The Trendy Treehouse Ladybug Blessings Night Owl Crafting Tea Rose Home My Girlish Whims Allie Makes Gluesticks Thrifty 101 Momnivores Dilemma A Little Knick Knack Miss Mustard Seed Freckled Laundry kojo designs A vision to remember Primitive and Proper 733 Rook no 17 Home Stories A to Z Naptime Crafters Whipperberry delightful order blissful and domestic elizabeth and co diy by design gingersnap crafts>my repurposed life

Monday, May 07, 2012

Staging the House to Sell {in less than one week}

We sold our house in 3 days after putting it on the market. Betcha didn't even know we were putting our house on the market. Neither did I!

I would love to pretend all my hard work cleaning and painting the house is what got it under contract so quickly; but God gets all the glory on this one. It is nothing short of a miracle!

I pulled 3 all-nighters painting and cleaning (while my husband was out of town) to get the house ready. We decided on a Tuesday we were going to list it... it was up and running by Saturday evening!

Our realtor gave us some great tips for staging the house and I'd love to share some of them with you here. Some of the tips are his and some are my own.

White everywhere.

wall color: Benjamin Moore Ashley Gray

This part of it was easy. We have white slipcovers and a white duvet cover on the bed. It really gives the "illusion of clean" as I like to call it. Even the walls in most of the rooms are a version of white. We have Sherwin Williams Antique White in the Kitchen and Kilim Beige in most of the rest of the house.

For $3 a piece I picked up some white bath towels at Target. The hand towels were $3 for two. I also found a white shower curtain on clearance at Home Goods!

I took some grossgrain ribbon from Dollar Tree and hot glued it into a loop to give the towels a little decorative touch.

I also rolled up some white washcloths and placed them in a basket

The washcloths were $3 for eight. *Secret: I bunched some old rags in the bottom of the basket. The rolled ones were placed on top, so it looks full!

I painted the cabinet white and the walls a light blue-green color to create a "spa-like" feeling in the bathroom.

I chose Sherwin Williams' color "Watery". Combined with the white towels, I think it does the trick! I wish I had some "before" pics... just know this bath used to be chocolate brown with giant pink polka-dots. I'm serious. It was cute for my daughter, but I can't imagine too many people would be into that look.

In the downstairs bathroom, I spray painted this thing white (it used to be stained in a dark cherry)

I also placed out some loofahs and river rocks in a glass bowl on the bathroom counter.

and displayed some soaps that we had

Another big one: Clean off your counter tops.

This means everything! I don't even get to use my Keurig, so I pull my little coffee press out of the cupboard each morning.

The counter thing goes for your toothbrush and hand soap in the bathroom too.

We also got a storage unit to store any unnecessary clutter. It was so worth the $30 a month!

Paint your woodwork (all trim and doors)!!! I cannot emphasize this one enough. It is time-consuming but so worth it. Old trim can quickly make a house look so grimy, whereas freshly painted trim gives off a clean and crisp vibe. As I was looking for our next house I noticed how the trim in the house influenced how I felt about the overall cleanliness. And I'm usually a fixer-upper kinda person who can see the potential in a place!

I really splurged here with Sherwin Williams Pro Classic paint. It costs almost twice as much as some of their other paint, but it goes on so nicely and covers in one coat. Time was of the essence here so I went for it.

Make it smell good. I have a terrible sense of smell, but I do know no one likes a stinky house. I don't know how people sold houses before Febreeze and reed diffusers. Some of them smell kind of chemically, but I really am impressed with this one from Target.

Again, when we went looking for our next house I couldn't believe some of the smells in the houses. A lot of them reeked! There were quite a few that caused my 2 year old to ask, "what's that smell Mommy?" the second we walked in the door. And this is a girl who will walk around in a poopy diaper, unphased.

*********

We still have to get through the appraisal on our house so this isn't a done deal yet. My God is bigger than any of the obstacles we need to overcome! If it is in His will for us to move, I believe it will happen.

Prayer has been the number one factor in selling this house. Praying for my own energy to get through all the work. Praying for a buyer. Praying for His will to be done in our lives. We put calls out to all our close friends to join us in prayer and I believe it works.

So to sum it up:

*White stuff everywhere (towels, slipcovers, duvets, shower curtains, etc)
*Make the bathroom "spa like" (Sherwin Williams "watery" color on walls)
*Everything off the counters (kitchen and bath)
*Store any stuff that is cluttering your home
*Paint your trim. Paint your trim. Paint your trim.
*Pray!

I also did a little chalk drawing on the blackboard wall in the kitchen...

Is this laying it on a little thick? Maybe. But I thought it was worth a shot ;o) I was inspired by Dana Tanamachi's drawings. I know it pales in comparison to her work, but it was my nod to her.

I'm really hoping to get back to blogging regularly... between the kids, work, and all the house stuff it has been nearly impossible. Thanks for sticking with me through it! I'll be sure to keep you updated when we hear anything.

Blessings,
Jamie

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Jewelry Organizer {From a Cookie Cooling Rack}

This upcycle doesn't take a whole lotta work...

Just hang a cooling rack on a door or wall for your very own jewelry organizer!

I used a command strip hook to hang the rack

and then dangled my earrings so that I could find them quickly and easily.

This has made getting ready so much more enjoyable!

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I added a couple additional hooks above it to hold some necklaces too.

What do you think? Do you have a cooling rack that isn't being used much? I was about to get rid of this before I had the idea to use it for earrings!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Jamie

Monday, April 02, 2012

Add Some Color to Your Decor {for cheap}

It's so good to be back! I didn't go anywhere, but my internet service did. Two weeks without the ability to upload photos. It stunk! Except for last week when my husband took the kids while I went to Starbucks... Latte-lovin, child-free, blog-posting wi-fi heaven I tell you! I'll have to do that again sometime. Now for some house updates.

I went a little nuts with the spray paint last week. I felt like it was just the pop of color my house needed as we go into Spring.

This was looking pretty worn and drab...

So much better in orange!

Don't we all have this same knife block from the wedding registry?

Bam! I love it now!

I had a few existing orange items in the kitchen; I just wanted a few more pops of color. Love my rag rug!

There is a tiny bit of orange in our window treatments...

and I've been keeping some clementines around since the kids love them.

And then there was this thing I got from my favorite local thrift store. It's now closed... sigh. Andi from Jane of all Crafts first took me there; at least I have this item (and my headboard) as a keepsake.

I loved it in wood, but I wanted more color in the living room...

You just got purplized!!!

But not you lion door-knocker handle thingy

I keep this next to the door for miscellaneous items like sunglasses and stuff.

This was so easy and fun, I think I'll be using spray paint a lot more in the future! Let me know what you think of the updates... did I go a little overboard?

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Jamie