Laundry Room Curtain Tutorial

Last week I shared with you my "Laundry Room Makeover".  I had a lace curtain hanging in the window that I needed  wanted to replace and I'll show you with all my wonderful limited sewing skills, how you can do the same.  If like me, you can make pillows and curtains with the help of a sewing machine, than that is all the sewing machine skill you will need for this project.  I used a left over piece of  "tea toweling by the yard" that I had purchased to make pillows for our porch.  This wonderful fabric is available at Fabric Essentials online store.  Pre-wash the fabric ahead of time.  This toweling comes already hemmed along the edges, so you only have to hem the two short ends on your sewing machine.  This is the only time you will need your machine.  

Using safety pins, I pinned some white plastic rings found in the craft department at Walmart, along the top edge (make sure they are large enough to slip over your curtain rod). I started by putting one at each end, folded the fabric in half, and put one in the middle. Fold and put one halfway between the end ring and the middle ring and repeat until you have the amount of rings you think you will need.

I then pinned some fabric yo yo's that I had made last year and pinned these along the bottom egde of the fabric.  Heather Bailey has an easy tutorial on how to make these here.  I connected each yo yo with hand stitching before hand sewing to the curtain.  Now you can simply slip the rings at the top of the curtain to a cafe curtain rod and hang it in the window to see if you like the way it hangs.  If you need more rings to make it hang properly, you can add more.

You can see the pins holding the rings in the upper photo and the pins holding the yo yo's in place in the lower photo.

Now, simply hand sew the rings to the top of the curtain and the yo yo's to the bottom.

Slip the curtain back on the rod and you are ready to go!

Most of our company comes through the back garden gate and to our back door.  They have to pass by this window as they come up on our porch.  I have been scared too many time to mention while folding clothes in this room or the UPS guy comes up to to leave a package at our back door.  I felt the need to make a lower curtain to save my sanity and my heart.  I used one of the fabrics from the yo yo's so it would coordinate.  Being the cheap thrifty person that I am, I only bought one yard which really isn't enough to make the curtain correctly.  Here is the problem since I'm cheap thrifty;  I'm not sure I like it enough to buy another yard to make two panels so that they can be slid back so a breeze can come in when the window is open.  Maybe I should put the mini blind back up (I hate dislike cleaning blinds).  Any ideas or opinions would be appreciated. 

I can always make this lower curtain into a cute apron if I decide not to use it!

I'm linking this to The Lettered Cottage

"How To'sday" post here.

Common Ground Vintage here.

Stuff and Nonsense here.

Chick and Crafty Thursdays here.

Easter Peep Cupcake Painting

Back when my kids were wee little peeps their favorite treats were those sticky marshmallow delights.  Peeps now come in several colors.  I never understood the attraction, but to this day, my kids daughter and son still love them.

In honor of their love for peeps, I've painted this little cupcake and listed it on eBay.

"Peep Cakes"

This sweet yellow peep chirps away on top of this delightful cupcake, a charming decoration for Easter or a baby girl's room. The green and pink floral cupcake wrapper is the perfect attire for this tempting treat. Green and pink dotted grosgrain ribbon is wrapped around the edges of the canvas and tied in a perky bow on top.

Do you still make your adult children Easter Baskets?

I wonder if I should send my son some peeps since he's in Spain?

Do they have peeps in Spain?

Did you hide your kids Easter baskets so they could hunt for them or just the eggs?

Please remember the true meaning of Easter.  It's a very miraculous and joyous holiday!

Easter Jelly Bean Cupcake Painting

Check out my new eBay listing:

"Jelly Bean Cupcake"

Tiny little pastel jelly beans are tucked into the bright green grassy frosting on top of this cute Easter cupcake. Could also be used in a little girl's room year round. A pink and brown dotted grosgrain ribbon wraps around the edges of the canvas and is tied in a bow at the top.

What Easter projects are you working on?

Laundry Room Makeover

We moved to this old house ten years ago.  I love the charm of an old home, like this laundry shoot.  What I didn't love was having to go to this creepy damp basement to do my laundry and then pack it up two flights of stairs to the bedrooms. 

One of the first things we did was change the large pantry into a laundry room so that I would only have to pack the laundry up one flight of stairs.  I hated having to give up this great pantry because I'd dreamed of a pantry like this with great organized shelves of food and dishes. 

Now it is a rather small laundry room for which I am truly thankful. When we first moved in I painted this room and the kitchen brown hoping to make the pink kitchen counter tops look beige.  When I purchased this brown paint, the lady who mixed it for me sold me glossy paint instead of eggshell.  She wouldn't listen to me and said it was my mistake and not hers.  Thus the shiny walls in the photo below:

I'm not the best photographer in the world so I'm sorry for these photos, but it's a tiny room and hard to photograph.

Now the room is a soft yellow (the same color I recently painted the kitchen).  My collection of aprons hang on the old pantry door.

This room is much more cheerful now!

I'm not crazy about this shelving, but it was here when we bought the house and works for now.  I would love to have some old cabinets someday.  My porch pillows are stored in the basket on top and I can grab them easily to take outside when the weather is right.

I moved my old gas station "self service" sign to this room because it seemed a little insulting in the kitchen.  I thought my guests might be a little intimidated by it. 

I plan to make new curtains soon from tea toweling material.

Now for a confession.  I won this adorable rolling pin holder from Carol at Firecracker Kid Primitives quite some time ago and never blogged about it.  I tried to take photos of it to share but everytime I took a picture the flash bounced off the shiny wall.  When I tried taking a photo without the flash the rolling pin holder didn't show up well against the dark wall.  Now it's the focal point of the wall.  Please check out her blog and her Etsy Shop.

This little apron hanging below the rolling pin holder was made by Grandma Chickie and she made it when she was very young.  Notice the great red and white polka dot trim around the edges!  It goes perfect with my polka dot apron and matching boots!  I'm sure she wore this to hang up clothes because I think the pocket was for clothes pins.  I'll share more when the curtains are finished.

I'm linking with "The Charm of Home"s  

Home Sweet Home party.

Gumball Cupcake Painting

I listed this little 4 x 4 inch painting on eBay this week. 

"Gumball Cupcake"

This little Gumball Cupcake is perfect for the inner child in all of us! A yummy vanilla cupcake slathered with buttercream frosting is topped with a bright red gumball. The blue and white polka dot cupcake wrapper is the perfect attire for this tempting treat. Red and white dotted grosgrain ribbon is wrapped around the edges of the canvas and tied in a perky bow on top.

 
  

I've been busy spring cleaning and painting my laundry room.  What are you busy with now that spring has arrived?

Saint Patrick's Day Cupcake Print Collection

My "Lucky Charm Cupcake" painting and "Irish Coffee Cupcake" painting sold last night.  All three designs including last year's "Irish Cream Cupcake" are now available as prints.  You can find them in my Etsy and Ebay stores. 

I'll be starting some Easter cupcake paintings soon!

Leave me your cupcake suggestions in my comments.

Thanks!

I'm linking up with Kathleen's St. Patrick's Day Blog Crawl.

Lucky Charm St. Patrick's Day Original Cupcake Painting

I just finished this little "Lucky Charm" cupcake.  These charmed desserts are whipped up in tiny kitchens by Leprechaun's and passed out to lucky recipients. 

This little 6" x 6" painting is listed on eBay here.

Piled high with almond flavored frosting, this lemon cupcake is a sweet treat for some lucky person. They will be charmed I'm sure! A green and brown dotted grosgrain ribbon wraps around the edges of the canvas and is tied in a bow at the top.

Enjoy!

Catherine

Baking Cupcakes! Yikes!

I have officially blown my diet!  Today instead of painting cupcakes (I'm really waiting for canvas to arrive via UPS), I decided to try my hand at a recipe from one of my new favorite blogs, "Inside BruCrew Life".  I've been meaning to try these out for a few weeks now, but I didn't want to add back the pounds that I'd worked so hard to lose recently.  I stumbled upon Jocelyn's blog through another blog.  When I saw her creative cupcakes I was smitten!  Today I baked these little goodies and gobbled one down immediately.  These are a treat for tomorrow night's "craft night" and I didn't want to take the chance of feeding them something without trying it first.  Right?  What can I say?  I'm hooked on these yummy stuffed with goodness treats!!!  In the center is a peanut butter ball make with crushed Nutter Butter cookies, cream cheese, and peanut butter.

Check out the recipe on Jocelyn's blog here.

I wasn't sure if this was supposed to make a dozen, two dozen or just how many.  I ended up with 12 extra peanut butter balls.  Next time I won't fill the cupcakes so full and I should end up with 18-24.  Also, I didn't have the dark cocoa powder that she called for in the frosting.  I ended up using regular cocoa and wasn't happy with the flavor so I melted some semi-sweet chocolate baking squares and mixed that in.  Much better!  My frosting still didn't come out as dark as it should, but it tasted great.  Tomorrow I'm back to painting my "calorie free tasty little bits of goodness"  and getting back on my diet!  Please tell Jocelyn that I sent you by.   I'm linking this post up with Chalk Talk:
Hugs,Catherine 
  

Irish Coffee Cupcake Painting

While I was researching for an idea to paint a cupcake for Saint Patrick's Day, I came across this green and brown polka dot ribbon that I purchased recently and that's where I found my inspiration for this "Irish Coffee Cupcake" painting.  It's so much fun to design for a holiday theme.  That's when I start getting bombarded with ideas.    Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.  You can find it here on eBay.

Looks like a little leprechaun has slipped into this fluffy frosting piled high on top of a yummy Irish Coffee Cupcake! This beautiful dessert is proudly displayed on a black pedestal cupcake stand.

This cute dotted ribbon is wrapped around the edges and tied in a bow at the top.

In case you are interested in trying these out for real, you can find the recipe on Martha Stewart's sight here.

Enjoy!

Catherine