Paper Airplane Mobile

Our internet has been down, and frankly it's not so much fun. I didn't realize how addicted I was. Thank goodness for phones! I literally check Pinterest every morning before I even get out of bed** just to see if any of my insomniac friends pinned something during the middle of the night that I just can't live without seeing yet. It's a sickness.

On our way out of the house this morning I ran into a neighbor and was reminded that I promised to babysit her girls today, a fact that had completely slipped my mind. So with no internet and being "stuck" at home for several hours I finally got on this ridiculously easy airplane mobile I've been wanting to make for The Boy's room.

Did I say it was easy? This was one of those embarrassingly simple projects.

Step 1: find a stick.
Step 2: fold paper airplanes.
Step 3: hang airplanes from stick.
Step 4: hang stick from ceiling.
Step 5: try really hard to think of a step 5 so it feels like there was some actual effort involved.

After searching the web, I came up with six airplanes that were possibilities and folded each out of computer paper trimmed to 5x7 so they would be petite when finished. I wrote the name of each plane in the center fold so I'd be able to remember which was which. Then I eliminated the one I liked least so there were 5 usable designs. I like to stick with odd numbers since I think they typically balance better visually. 

I have had this 5.5x8.5 striped vellum literally since the summer of 1999 when I planned a bridal shower for a friend. This seemed like a good use for the rest of it with some metallic gold paper thrown in for contrast and spunk. I promise it's got a sheen to it, you just can't tell here.

I kid you not, that's about all there is to show.

The hardest part of this project turned out to be figuring how to hang it without falling face first off my step stool (short people problems). I ended up using 3M command hooks, as I have done with nearly everything in our apartment. It is very light and two hooks would have handled the weight just fine, but then my crazy imagination pictured one coming loose for some reason and the branch falling on my sleeping baby - so I added the third for extra precaution. 

I really love it! It's simple, and airy, and just adds a little something to make the room feel more baby centered than just a crib stuck in the storage room, which let's face it, it pretty much is. Coupled with the map from my teaching supplies and a world travel theme started to emerge. One day he'll have a room that is all his own, after all, they tell me grad school doesn't last forever...

**In full disclosure, this post was mostly written in November, before I was awake periodically through the night with a newborn. Now I check Pinterest in the middle of the night while feeding a little human.

I found the paper airplane templates here:
http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/
http://www.10paperairplanes.com/

Embracing Chalk

Flashback: It's Algebra class, sophomore year. At the start of class my cute little nerdy Grandpa teacher would have several members of the class write math problems from the homework on the board. For most, there was anxiety over being given a problem that they'd actually finished, let alone done correctly. For me, there was anxiety over having to hold a piece of chalk. The gritty, rough, powdery surface left my OCD self feeling like I needed to take a shower. I did not like it, not one little bit.

Fast forward to today and the years-long trend now of chalkboard everything and I have had an internal battle. I don't like chalk, but those projects are all so cute!!! I don't want to have to hold chalk in my hand, but I want a cute memo board like that!! I don't want loose powder in the air or grungy erasers or the smell or anything else that goes with chalk, but I want to be able to make cute chalkboard messages that can change on a whim!! When it all comes together, 1 + 1 = I made a chalkboard. 

It's sort of my equivalent of selling out, just on a crafting level. Should I feel bad about that? 

I used this frame, that I have used many times before for my front door. I had to peel off some hot glue from a Valentines "wreath" and replace some scraped off paint from floral wire, but this little can of paint + primer spray paint by Krylon was just the ticket to take care of that.

Since a frame clearly needs something to go in it, I decided to use the glass for the base of the chalkboard. The chalkboard paint can said it should go on a smooth surface, but I was worried the glass was tooo smooth. I sprayed a super light coat of the white as a primer so the chalkboard paint would adhere better.

No need to worry getting perfectly even coverage, it's primer! We're going to cover that baby up.

I already owned a can of the brush on chalkboard paint, so that is the route I went. I think the spray paint would give a better final surface, but if you haven't figured it out yet, I tend to work with what I've got. Using a nice Zibra brush helped get thin, even coats. I love those brushes.

I let it dry, then added two more coats.

I absolutely do not love washing paint brushes, especially when I want to use them again soon, so I slapped that puppy into a sandwich bag between coats so the board would dry but the bristles wouldn't. It works famously. You probably knew that already, but I seriously do this all the time.

Long story short, or short project long, that's it! Then it's just a matter of making sure the paint is fully dry, slipping the glass back into the frame, and replacing the back. It's almost embarrassing how easy this is and how long I've debated making one.

Man, I wish I could paint these doors.

It's only taken two whole months to find chalk, and I finally found it for $0.47/box at Walmart (despite the fact that I've looked there at least a dozen times already). It's kind of frustrating to look for something for so long and then have it be so very cheap. Not that I'm complaining.

Squirt had a great time writing on it and I can't bring myself to erase her note.

 You can see progess is being made!! It's sure not done, but it's so much better.

It's going to live {for now} on Baby Boy's door. I figure it can hold messages like "Baby's Sleeping" or "Last ate at 3:42 a.m." so I actually remember in the morning when the boy had his midnight snacks. Most likely I will slave over making some sort of cute typographic saying, and then freak out when it gets smudged, but that is a topic for another OCD counseling session.

Now that I've sold out to chalkboard-dom, I think I'm rapidly getting addicted. I have more projects in mind with no end in sight. Now if only I could talk myself into not minding the feel of chalk...

Refinishing the Cradle - in process

When our Munchie was born, her great grandfather made her a solid wood cradle. Actually, it was made a few years before she was born. The Hubs' {then} wife had seen one he'd made for another family member and asked for one, but they never actually used it for the baby. Since then, the Hubs has been storing it and moving it and otherwise trying to decide what to do with it. It's one of those things that is special, but not always easily maneuvered. When we found out The Boy was coming, it made it easy for me to decide what to do. Lets use it!

We got it out of hiding, rearranged furniture, and found it a home. One glorious day he asked me "so do you want to refinish it or paint it or something?"

My heart jumped. Not only did I have permission to refinish it, it was HIS idea and he was open to anything at all that I wanted to do; even if that meant painting pink hearts all over it. Not that I would ever, ever paint pink hearts all over anything. {Ick}

I posted this pic to Instagram and polled my friends. The overwhelming consensus was stain, not paint. That sort of scared me, since I'm not exactly very familiar with stain, but I knew that if the option was available it would not stay this golden oak color forever.

I lugged one part of the stand to the local Woodcraft store and asked for suggestions, got the go-ahead from my doctor, and went to work. They recommended the products and let me double check them against the food safety data sheets - you know - since there is no guarantee it will not get chewed on.

The Hubs and Squirt left town to visit Munchie for her birthday, and I got to work. After a light sanding with my new bff {the palm sander} and wiping it down for dust, it was time to get to some serious business.

Yes, I wore protection. No one wants to breathe particulates or smell grossness all night long, especially while pregnant.

The nice folks at Woodcraft recommended I use a sanding sealer. It went on smooth and easy. Honestly, if I had done nothing else I was so impressed with the shellac they recommended that the golden oak almost looked good enough for me to leave just like that.

I didn't actually know the piece had been "signed" until I flipped it over and did a coat of shellac on the bottom. Seriously, this is pretty much the coolest thing ever. I think it has "family heirloom" written all over it. In that moment I was really glad to be refinishing the piece to something we love enough to keep forever.

I'd read about a dozen blog posts about gel stains, and everyone suggested using men's socks. Then I stumbled on another site which said to use smooth knit material. I didn't really feel like spending any more money, so I grabbed an old t-shirt and chopped it to bits. It's one we got free at a university basketball game that I was previously using as an art smock for the kids, so it was definitely disposable in my eyes. And free. I always love free.

It's true, what they say. Gel stain really does look like chocolate pudding. I went to the store with the intent of getting the Java color people rave about so much, but half our "affordable" furniture is that Ikea espresso fake stuff and I thought that Java would make the cradle look, I don't know, less real alongside everything else. After a long while debating and texting photos of the stain samples I chose to go with the Georgian Cherry.

This stuff seriously does go a long way. Like, a long way. I had read a few posts where people wiped it on thick then wiped off the excess and said it was all good. That was NOT my experience. I found that light, even coats were the way to go. I had visible streaks after the first coat since I let it sit for a minute before trying to wipe some away and it took a good four more coats to even out the finish fairly well. If I were to do it again, I'd rather do the first coat very thin and very even, even if it meant I had to add an extra coat or two to get the color intensity I wanted.

All the other bloggers out there are right. The first coat looks atrocious. I almost cried thinking I'd ruined the Hubs special piece but decided not to judge until it was all done.

This is where I had not thought things through very well. Most people wear plastic gloves under the mens socks they use to rub on the stain. This is a very good idea. Since I didn't, I had to find a way to clean myself up. I used regular canola oil from my kitchen to dissolve the stain and clean my hands.

Ha! Like how pink my hands are from all the scrubbing? My fingers and nails actually looked better after multiple coats because I got better at keeping it off my skin and was more efficient using the oil to get the stain off.

I wanted to cry a little bit with every coat. I just had a vision in my mind that did not match what I saw before me.

Then suddenly it started to improve. After 5 coats on all sides of the cradle I did the same thing to the stand {in the background, still golden oak here}.

Then I went for the pieces that keep it all together.

I let the whole thing sit for a week and today jumped in with the polyurethane coating. It's almost done and I'm so excited to share the finished product. That will take a few days I fear, but rest assured, it is coming and {I think} it is glorious. My life is becomming eat, sleep, and craft for baby. I could get used to this.

Mariner's Compass Map Art

I have finally begun to feel like progress is being made in my life. It's a fantastic feeling. I am now officially in the third trimester so I feel somewhat like a fire has been lit under my bum to get things finished. I'm doing really well with the stuff I want to finish, grad school and dishes tend to suffer these days.

I'm so proud of myself though. Today I pulled out all the stops and actually got my craftiness on.
It was awesome.

Little boy's "nursery" is turning out to be very nature/map/travel/adventure themed, which is fantastic because I get to reuse so much stuff that I already have from my classroom. Today I made this mariner's compass art.

I completely love everything about it, except the yellow tinge in the photos because we get no. natural. light. in our apartment. In real life, it's not got that faint twinge of yellow on the right and it looks pretty dang awesome.

Here's how I went about it:
After finding a compass clip art online that I liked, I put it into illustrator and made a square 7.5 inches wide so that I could resize the art to exactly the dimensions I wanted. I knew I wasn't going to use the N,S,E,W letters so I didn't worry about those going over the edge. We have some frames sitting around unused and I knew which one it would go into, which is how I decided on the size.

I printed the compass out on cardstock, and then cut out all the white parts. This was a touch tricky in places and required a fairly steady hand, but only took a few minutes.

With every piece that came out I got more and more excited about it.

Here it is all cut out. I confess that I got a little bit nervous here that it was going to look too small in the frame, but it all worked out for the best.

I bought this atlas at Christmas a couple years ago specifically to use one map page for a project, and have hung onto it since. Now I just had to decide which page I liked with the compass.

I just flipped through holding the compass and frame on different maps looking for one that I liked aesthetically - and didn't think I'd need to use for another project one day. In the end, I settled on Alaska. It seems appropriate after our babymoon there last month, plus I like the blues and greens. It's the perfect blend of sentimentality and attractiveness.

I wanted there to be some dimension to the compass part to help it stand out a little more so I used 1/8 inch foam photo mounting squares. Some of them needed to be chopped up with the exacto knife to fit, but that was easy enough to do.

Then it was as simple as sticking the compass on the map. Easy peasy. I added a foam square to each corner so that it would stay the same distance from the glass all the way around and not get smooshed in the center while getting bent around the edges.

Illustrator came to the rescue to add a little banner to the bottom of the page. I made a whole page of banners of different shapes and colors, only to find out that the one I liked best printed was the one I liked least on the screen. Isn't that always the way it goes?

Here's a PDF of the compass art I used along with the companion banner, you know, just in case someone in your life needs a little mariners compass art also.

Mariner's Compass Art File

I know I already said it, but I love, love, love it. Best part? It seriously cost me nothing because I only used things I had on hand, plus, it was fast and fun to put together.

It's just one more thing to make my FIL laugh and tell me I had to marry the Hubs to discover that secretly I'm a geographer. I can't help it. I heart maps, and I always have. Just wait until he sees the nursery all finished. I'm prepping myself now for his reaction.

Mock Crib Skirt DIY

I was determined to make a "traditional" crib skirt. At least I was until it came time to actually make it. I realized all too quickly that it wasn't practical to get the end result I wanted. So, I decided to make one of those loose side panels that attaches to the crib spring and can be moved as the crib lowers. The big reason is the way my crib spring attaches to the frame. There is no way possible to have a standard crib skirt lay smoothly over these bars. It always ends up bunched like crazy in the corners.

I learned that the last time around when Squirt used the crib, and it bugged me the entire two years she slept there. Lesson learned - figure out something that would lay flat.

Since the nursery is a shared space and the crib is basically sandwiched between a wall and a bookshelf there is only one side that is exposed. The space underneath is desperately needed for storage, so it needs concealment, but only on one side. There is always the way that they did it over on Young House Love, but I wanted something a little more tailored. I took the idea and changed it to work with our crib and the thinner material I'd purchased.

My fabric was about 58 inches wide, and my crib spring was 51 inches so I decided to use the full width of the material.

*** In full disclosure these pictures are HORRIBLE, not that you need me to tell you that. I had time to kill one evening and let's face it, projects typically happen when they can and not necessarily when there is pretty lighting.***

Using a rotary cutter, I cut one strip from the fabric 27 inches long. I've seen so many blogs that say it's impossible to cut fabric straight. No, it isn't. It does help a LOT though if you've got the right tools.

I remember my mom using metal seam gauges to press her seams to the perfect width, but I tend to cheat and make my own out of a piece of cardstock. I drew 3 different lines to represent the different hem widths I was going to use for this panel. The sides were pressed over 1.

My ironing board cover is heinous. I've wanted to replace it for about a decade now. I'm sorry you have to see it here. After pressing I pinned the fold to keep it in place. You could use hem tape if you like, but I had the means and ability to sew it. Plus, I like the look of a stitched hem better than mysteriously clean edged fabric.

I stitched a 3/4 inch hem on the sides. Then I used my handy-dandy cardstock seam gauge again and folded the bottom edge up 1 1/2 inches. I knew I wanted a wider seam for the bottom edge. I pinned and stitched it at 1 1/4 inches from the bottom, then added a second row of stitching 1/4 inch from the first.

The double row of stitching looks a little more polished and substantial for the base of the skirt.

{Yes, I used a carpentry tape measure. I couldn't find my cloth one and this worked in a pinch.} Since I knew I wanted a pleat in the center, I hadn't worried that the material was a bit wider than what I needed the finished skirt panel to be. To create the pleat I first folded the material in half. The skirt needed to be 51 inches finished witdth so I measured the folded panel 25.5 inches from the sewn edge (plus an extra 1/8 inch cushion because I decided I'd rather have it slightly larger than slightly smaller).

I marked finished width with the white pin, and the true center of the fabric with the red pin.

Bringing the red pin to the white and smoothing the edges gave me one perfect pleat. In order to make sure it stayed centered and even I did the same thing along the bottom edge as well. Along the top edge I stitched it a few times to hold the pleat in place. Since I wanted the bottom one open I left it pinned.

Using the pinned/sewn folds as a guide I smoothed out the fabric keeping it as even as possible and pressed the pleat in place. This is the view from the back.

When viewed from the front it looks like this.

After realizing that it is an awfully long narrow pleat, I decided to stitch it in place periodically. I only really cared about the pleat being open at the bottom edge but wanted it to stay tidy looking while on the bed. I measured the front of the crib to see how high the stitches should be to stay hidden behind the wood. For my crib I ended up using 11 inches and 22 inches.

I stitched it in a "V" pattern like shown above. The stiches didn't show up in pictures, so humor me that the text makes sense. I think of this as a "cheerleader skirt pleat" since I seem to remember them having v shaped reinforcements. I could be wrong, it's just the image in my head from being jealous when my friend made cheer in 8th grade and I didn't. It's just as well, I'd have never been comfortable in one of those tiny skirts.

To finish the top, I first folded it over 1/2 inch and stitched it at 1/4 inch. Then I used ribbon already on hand (since it's going to be buried beneath the mattress I decided I could survive if it didn't match). I divided the length into seven and placed the a folded over ribbon at those intervals. That way there was a tie at each end, in the center, and two between each edge and the center.

I stitched them on twice just to be safe. I'd hate for the thing to fall apart in a month or two.

Here it is finished and laying in my hallway in the middle of the night. It doesn't look like much here.

This is more what I'm talking about - except for once again the really terrible lighting. See how the center pleat is mostly hidden behind the center bar? I could have stitched it completely down just leaving the bottom section open but I didn't actually realize that until I was finished.

This is why the crib skirt is so necessary for us. We are definitely using the space under there and I don't want to have to stare at everything each and every day. If I had enough space to use adorable baskets for baby related storage I'm not sure this would be so important to me.

The crib skirt is tied straight to the spring and can be moved as the mattress is raised so it will always just grace the floor. As much as I didn't want to do that at first, I'm really excited to know that I won't have to redo this project as the mattress moves. This idea really is brilliant. I've also seen binder clips used for this purpose. My fabric is smooth and polished so I felt that it would slip out of the clips and drive me crazy. This way I know it won't budge until I want it to.

Doesn't that look nice? I was planning on doing side panels the same way, but decided they weren't needed since you don't see the sides at all. Fortunately I have plenty of material left over if I change my mind one day. I won't tell you how long I spent trying to iron the fitted sheet so it would look just right in a picture. I'm totally over it and will never try such a silly thing again. The map is from my years teaching and will be getting a little makeover of it's own pretty soon!

Things are coming together!