DIY Pink-Polka Dot washing machine

Let me just say that my husband is awesome & indulges me!! How many guys would let their wives get away with this?! :)

I am just going to start with the after picture because I am obsessed with my newly painted pink & polka dotted washing machine!! Isn't it fabulous? I had seen this Pin at the beginning of the summer of a turquoise polka dot washer & have been trying to find the time to do this. It was my perfect answer to wanting a new washer & dryer but not having the money for a fancy upgrade. Paint it pink & it feels like new! It was a fairly simply project, except it was a very small room to work in & I did not want to pull them out. So I only painted their tops & fronts. 

As you can see in this picture, we had just a boring, plain white washer & dryer. Drew actually brought these into the marriage :) Not pretty, but they get the job done!

I started the make-over by taping off around the control knobs. I held bowls of varying sizes around the areas I didn't want to paint and then traced around them. Next step was applying primer. I used two coats of KILZ primer. And just a warning- it STINKS!! Especially in a tiny laundry room! Drew was afraid I might be causing myself a little brain damage :)

Next, it was time for the pink! I used regular latex paint, in a very happy shade of pink. I ended up doing three coats to get it completely covered. Here's after the pink:

 Aren't they pretty?! They make me happy!! The tutorial I had been following used a stencil to add the white polka dots. I didn't have a stencil. I also did not want to trace polka dots all over it & hand paint them. So I went with an easier & faster solution. White vinyl! I used my cricut to cut out circles of various sizes in white vinyl. I then just stuck them on. Super fast & easy! Only problem- I ran out of vinyl.

At this point, I really wish I would have left the dryer white. Then I could have done it opposite, white dryer with pink polka dots. O well, too late!!

And yes, I did go out & buy more white vinyl for the dryer but before I had a chance to add the polka dots, our washer broke. Yes, our freshly painted washer broke!! Can you say OMG?!!

And in the process of it breaking, it flooded the laundry room. And the water messed up the attached living room carpet. And it seeped through the walls & soaked the master closet. Once again, OMG!!!!

I'm not even sure what I was more upset about, the washer being broken, the floors having to be replaced, or the fact that I just painted that stupid thing!!

Anyway, two weeks later & the washer has been banged around a bit but it is fixed. The lid switch broke. So that was a cheap fix. Well, except for the floors. We have also picked out new flooring that is to be replaced within the next two weeks.

Drew says the whole thing was my fault. His washer & dryer didn't want to be pink because they are manly. Whatever, it's fixed & we're on the road to new floors!!

May wrap up - 90th!, mirror frame, sugar scrub, flower wreath

 Jolie wasn't the only May birthday we got to celebrate. This amazing lady is my grandmother, Dorothy Kelly. On May 20 she turned 90 years old! I am so blessed to be able to call her Grandmother! I love her so much! And despite her declining health, she is still a spit fire & is definitely one of my favorite people in the entire world!! Happy Birthday Grandmother!!

She likes to have blankets on her lap, so I made her this minky blanket. Of course it's pink, It's her favorite color too. I really liked the brightness of this color combo & she loved it! Mom says she uses it almost every day :)

Here's a picture of me & Drew at her party.

Mother's Day was also in May, so I decided to make my mom & mother-in-law sugar scrubs. It was a first for me & I'm not sure I'd ever make them again!! They were super messy (ok, that could just be a me problem) to make & I was never super happy with the consistency. I went with a lavender scent.

At least they're pretty :) 

I also finally framed out the mirror in the guest bathroom. It was soo much easier than when I did the master because I had confidence in what I was doing! I love the transformation!

But- do you see what happens when you ask your husband to send you a picture of the after because you forgot to? He doesn't even notice that there's a light out! O well, thanks husband!!

I also made new, colorful wreaths to go on the french doors in the kitchen. My first try at flower wreaths by myself. Not my favorite, but they'll do.

And that is May, all wrapped up. I think!

DIY mirror frame

What to do on a Saturday night when your husband is playing with the guys & your crafty friend wants to hang out? Frame our bathroom mirror! finally! I have had this pin from House of Smiths on my home board for a while, trying to work up the nerve to do this. My friend Jennifer had already done it to her bathroom mirror so we decided it would be a perfect project for us. Here's the before picture of the builder's grade mirror in our master bathroom.  Basic boring mirror with fabulous light fixtures that we added as soon as we moved in.

Jennifer & I measured the mirror & headed to Lowe's for some moulding, base boards & liquid nails. We followed the House of Smith tutorial for the most part, cutting the boards to my mirror's measurements with 45 degree corner angles. It was the first time I had used my brand new miter saw that my parents got me for Christmas (this post is supposed to be February!), so it took us a little while to get the saw figured out! But after we did, it went really smooth. The pieces fit together pretty well & it was time to glue them together! Okay- here is where we deviated from the tutorial. I tried & tried to glue the frame together before adding it to the mirror by applying liquid nails to the corners & leaving it to dry overnight. I don't know if it was the weather or just Kelly error, but the frame would not stay glued together!! So, I moved on to plan b- paint each side piece & then add the sides of the frame to the mirror individually. I started with the left side piece, added liquid nail & glued it directly to the mirror. I then did the top, right side & finished with the bottom of the mirror. Great news- it worked!! To make sure it would stay in place, I added some blue painters tape to it until it dried.

I left the tape up for about 24 hours. And let me warn you- liquid nails in a small space like a bathroom stinks!! for days!!

Anyway, after removing the tape, all i had to do was fill in any gaps in the corners of the frame with wood filler, sand & repaint where I sanded. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but after I got it figured out, the guest bathroom mirror only took half of the time!

Here's the finished mirror

 I LOVE it!! I didn't loose much of the mirror & it gives the bathroom a more finished look!

Ignore the sweats, but check out that pretty corner. Let me tell you- I was very impressed with myself!! Guest bathroom pictures to come after I take them :)

Heart in a cupcake re-do!

The weekend before Valentine's Day we were headed down south to my parent's house and I wanted to take my niece & nephew a little something. It was the perfect chance to get my heart in a cupcake fail corrected! This time, I took my time (and step by step pictures) and it worked! I also decided to use my newly learned rose piping skills on these cupcakes as well. Very happy with how they turned out!

After you mix the batter, separate 1/3 of it out, color it & bake in a square baking pan until just firm. Wait until the cake is fully cooled. You can stick it in the fridge or freezer to expedite this. After it is cooled, use a small cookie cutter of your choice to cut out the cake that will be the centers of your cupcakes. Since it's Valentine's Day, I of course chose pink hearts.

I tried to cut out as many hearts as possible.

 Here are all of my hearts ready to go into the cupcakes!

Place a dollop of batter in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Then place a heart in each, piping batter around the heart until the liner is 2/3 full.  

 IMPORTANT- make sure all your hearts are facing the same direction! And that you remember which direction that was!

Here's what they look like right out of the oven. I have no idea why the hearts floated to the top. I followed the tutorial & hers didn't seem to. Maybe my hearts are too thick or my dollop at the bottom was too much.

When icing- remember to keep all the cupcakes facing in the same direction as they were in the pan so you know which way the heart is facing! If you don't, see my last post & the blobs they will look like when you cut them!! All that hard work for nothing....

Anyway, I used the rose piping technique from the cake post on these cupcakes. Using a 1M tip, start in the middle & swirl around to the outside. Easy Peasy.

 I added some white sugar sprinkles and the shiny finishing glaze. Aren't they pretty!! :)

 This is the first one we cut in to for my grandmother. I did it!! There's a heart!! In hindsight, I probably should have done the icing a different color, maybe red. With the heart sticking out the top of the cupcake, the top of the heart gets a little bit lost in the icing. O well, at this point I'm just excited you can actually see a heart!

 And here's my niece Jolie with her cupcake. You can really see the heart in this one :)

And yes, she loved them! Spoiled girl, she thinks every time Aunt Kelly comes to see her cupcakes are coming as well. What can I say? If she asks, they probably always will!

And not to leave her little brother Cade out, I made my first ever blanket thanks to this Pinterest post.

 It has minky fabric on one side & a really cool kind of western print on the other. It was soo soft! My husband wants one for his recliner. I'm thinking it will have to be much bigger than the one I made for Cade!

Love him!!

And since it went over so well, I decided to make one to send to our cousin's month old little boy West.

All in all, Valentine's Day was a success!! Drew & I decided to do something different and had an at home date night for ours. It was almost a disaster due to my favorite Italian restaurant not doing take-out that night, but Carino's, cupcakes & my handsome husband saved the night!

Hope yours was good as well!

Merry Christmas from the Selfs!!

I'm almost enjoying the fact that I am so far behind on this blog! It's letting me go down memory lane! And oh how I miss my Christmas decorations!! I worked hard & made ALOT of different things for the first time. Here are some pictures of our home & my creations :)    btw-this is not our tree. This picture was taken at Drew's school party, which was not an ugly sweater party. He just wanted to stand out.

I can't even explain how much I loved my tree this year! We used white lights & I made garlands for the first time. We are a hodge podge ornament kind of family so Drew & I pick out a few new ornaments every year. I also started a tradition last year, of making us each an ornament every year. The things I plan to improve on our tree next year are the topper & the tree skirt. I fell in love with this burlap ruffle tree skirt, but I just ran out of time. O well, it will be done next year!

Here's a close up of my two garlands. One is a cream burlap that got folded back & forth with thread run through it to hold it together. The red one is tulle that I ruffled on my sewing machine. I really love the contrast together! I got the idea here.

These are the ornaments I made last year. Pretty good for my first attempt! I spray painted clear glass balls, used marshmallows to paint the dots & cut our names out of vinyl with my cricut.

I got this sign for our yard at Canton. I think it is super cute! I plan to try & make them next year for our families!

Here is our AwEsOmE front door! This was the first piece of our all-out Christmas decorating to be completed. My mother-in-law Diana, is very crafty & made this garland for me, while we were sitting in the hotel in Canton. It is made out of burlap, deco mesh & ribbon. Luckily, she taught me how to do it as she was making it! I think it is gorgeous!! I have never had a garland around our entry before. This was the start to my Christmas decorating obsession! 

Here's a close up of the deco/burlap. I just love it! I had never used deco before either & discovered I could do soo many things with it!!

Like Christmas wreaths! I made this wreath for my friend Sandee. It is my favorite wreath I've made. I love that green & red sparkly ribbon.

 This one I made for Drew's school's Christmas party.

Once I started with the garlands & deco mesh, I had a problem stopping. This is inside our kitchen. I made this garland all by myself! It did have a hook in the middle where it draped, but I was having some problems with the hook staying stuck to the wall. I finally got it fixed, but didn't get a picture. I made those wreaths as well. Red & cream burlap, folded like the tree garland, threaded onto a hangar.

A close-up of my handy work :)

 Did I mention, I got a little obsessive with the Christmas decorating?! This is the door leading to our bedroom. My husband just laughed & shook his head. I eventually took it to my mom to hang in her house.

Like I said, the many uses of Deco Mesh. I saw this Pin for a deco mesh lighted Christmas tree & knew just who needed one, my three year old niece, Jolie. But of course, since she's related to me, it needed to be pink!! She loved having her own Christmas tree in her room!

 This is my nephew Cade in the shirt I made him. Isn't he precious?!

 And the outfit I made Jolie on Christmas day. Her tutu was getting a little crazy from all her antics, but she was adorable!

So, as you can see, we had a very colorful & festive Christmas at the Self house! Drew is pretty worried what next year will bring since I learned how to do so many new things in December. He is convinced we will be start decorating in October & have garlands around every door frame. He may be correct :)

Merry belated Christmas!!

Presents for West

 The shower post for West got so long, I decided to do a separate entry for the presents I made him. I really got busy crafting for this little man! Up first, I made month onesies for West. I got the idea from this Pin. I cut the fabric out with my cricut then ironed it on. I chose three different fabrics that I rotated over the twelve months. Tomorrow is his four month birthday & Andie has taken his picture in the onesies each month! I would share them with you, but her internet connection is out in the boonies & doesn't work real well, so she hasn't sent them to me yet!

I used heat transfer vinyl to do the numbering & wording. I think they ended up SOO cute! I couldn't go to her shower in Ozona, so this is the gift I sent for her. Apparently it was a hit at the shower :)

If you have Pinterest, you'll probably know where this quote came from. I've seen this Pin pinned by almost everyone I am friends with, including my cousin Andie. Good reason, it's pretty awesome! I couldn't afford it, so I made my own. I glued 3 1x4s together, painted them blue & then white washed it. I loved the look but then remembered the walls in West's room were the same blue. I wanted it to stand out on the wall, so I used the chocolate around the edges to create a border & age it, all at the same time. I cut all the words out of vinyl with my cricut. It was time consuming, but so worth it! 

She was so surprised to see it sitting on the table for her :)

I made this sign for West's room out of a cabinet door. I first painted it blue, then chocolate, and then distressed. I cut out his name with my cricut and used it as a stencil. Love it!

All in all, everything for West's shower was really great!! I'm glad Andie enjoyed it!