My first!

October 30, 2015October 30, 2015 | mollyeleen

Hello Strangers! I sure have been absent for too long. Isn’t it funny, when you think you did something maybe last week and then you sit down to really figure out when you last did said thing it’s like 6 freaking months later! I mean really?! But lets just pretend you are still listening (reading) and let me share my newest DIY, awesomeness if I do say so myself

My very first Ikea Hack! I am so excited it’s a little on the sad side, but the outcome is so fantastic!

So here is the short, of the long story of how this hack came to be. We had a lamp on a side table for over a year. This lamp became a thousand little shattered pieces in a blink of a toddlers eye. Hubby and I decided we needed to hang a lamp instead to avoid any future disasters. It could look cool so I searched for a chandelier and when I found an okay one to just see if we like it um… NO! All the lighting in the house is modern. And this didn’t cut it. So instead of sitting in the dark of the evenings – I thought, why don’t I just get the Joxtorp from Ikea (costs $5) until I find the perfect lamp, I was over it being so dark. So up when the Joxtorp and wow, I actually really liked it. Hubby like it too… score.

But then night came around… and the chair turned into the interrogation chair. Why? Well this lovely Joxtorp is cardboard (!) and no light can escape it except for at the bottom, so all the light was flooding the chair. It looked like an old movie jail scene with the bad guy sitting in a chair the light shining down on him while being asked “where were you on the night of October 23?” Humm… what to do?

Then I had an idea. A brilliant idea. A horribly, awful, brilliant idea! Why don’t I cut triangles into the lamp and cover the holes with vellum, then the light can escape. “It could be awesome. It could not work and suck. It was $5 – where is my exact-o knife!”

Here is what I did and what you will need

You will need the Joxtorp lamp from Ikea and a hanging cord, exact-o knife, waxed sandwich bags, hot glue gun, pencil, ruler and patients. Take the lamp apart (or before you put it together) and take one piece at a time and place upside down on a cutting mat. Measure 3/4″ of an inch away from all the score marks and draw lines to create the triangles. (You need to do a minimum of 3/4″ because the tabs used to hold it together will still be hidden). Cut out all the triangles and repeat on all 6 pieces. Yes this takes some time, but it is easy.

Next grab your waxed sandwich bags and carefully slice off the top pieces, not the side with the seam, and be very careful not to crinkle the paper. Grab your hot glue gun and carefully and slowly glue each triangle into place. Then trim the waxed paper to just the edge of the hot glue using the exact-o knife. – Repeat 29 more times.

Assemble the lamp as the instructions say, hang and ta-da! Totally geometric hanging lamp that emits a beautiful light at night and looks pretty amazing during the day too!

Have you made an Ikea hack? Will you be trying this? If you do, I would love to see your creation.

Designing, Crying and a little change

August 28, 2014August 28, 2014 | mollyeleen

Utter Chaos. We are living in utter chaos. Not only is Kiddo starting kindergarten today and Hubby started back to school two days ago but we are moving in 10 days! TEN.

In true me fashion, I am procrastinating. Procrastinating packing. I just spent days and days and days helping my mom pack and now we have to pack… procrastination is calling my name! How do you ask? Well,

I’m blogging today
I am designing my mom’s new kitchen in her new home (more in a bit)
My partner in “crime” Magazine Mom and I are working on a new business (more to come in the future but let’s just say is extraordinary!)
I am studying to be a girl scout leader (who new right) and
I have decided to rename my blog and my little business (WHAT!?- yes. more in a bit plus a bit)

Shall we review- number one. Well this is obvious. I am typing away in the middle of cardboard, tape, plastic wrap and boxes. (“Ignore it all Molly”)

Number two- Redesigning my mom’s new kitchen. As you recall, my mom just moved up to our area. The house is great, the kitchen not so much. Not my mom. Not designed well. Not anything to be kept. So I am helping her redesign it. It feels good to get my designer hat back for a moment. Use my designer brain, it’s been rusty for awhile. To use the computer for drawing and not pinning or checking status, etc. happy day!

Reality check. It’s really hard to work while the girls are up. We spent a few hours yesterday at mom’s house. The girls where “locked” in the den. Okay to clarify, I put a baby gate across the doorway so that Sneaky B would not go up the stairs. Kiddo was “babysitting” while I worked and I would sneak a peak every now and then. It was working great until the crying, screaming and tears started. Kiddo says nothing happened- I believe her, she was crying and screaming too. We have so much change right now, I sometimes wish I could just sit in a room and scream and cry.

Number three- It’s extraordinary- moving on

Number four- Girl Scouts- Daisy’s to be exact. A few months ago it was “decided” that I should be a girl scout leader with all the girls from pre-school and other kindergartners and first graders. I thought, no problem. That would be fun. Wow- I had no idea what it takes to be a leader! It’s going to be fun and I am excited but it’s a lot to learn. I am up for that challenge!

Number Five- Renaming the blog! This one I have been thinking about for a long time. Why Vintage Princess by ME? That’s the name of my little clothing business. Why did I name my blog that? NO idea. A few months ago I thought I was going to name the blog Pumpkin & Pearl… did you notice this:

Yeah- not quite right. I think it’s cute, but no… So now Vintage Princess by ME is:

Why? Well simply because that’s who I am. I am Molly B (it’s what my grandmother used to call me) and I like to create and share my journey. It simply covers everything. I will be updating the blog look soon- let’s hope it’s not during another procrastinating session- unless it’s procrastinating from UN-packing. I am changing the little business name too, again, let’s wait to we move. I can no longer ignore all the boxes…

Sprinklings: the “candy queen”

October 30, 2013October 30, 2013 | mollyeleen

A few days ago I gave you a sneak peek of the costume I made for Kiddo. Remember this pic:

Ten yards of tulle (I used the 102″ wide tulle) in many colors, ribbon, crown ornaments, crocheted stretch band thing, and plastic candy garlands from a few christmas’ ago. And after a few hours it turned into this

The Candy Queen! We found inspiration all over pinterest for this costume, although they where all candy princesses. Kiddo wanted to be a Queen. I’m not sure how the costume would be different to be a princess, but to her it’s a Queen.

All in all this was the easiest costume I have made for Kiddo so far. It’s one of those big bang for your buck kind of things. Yes it took a few hours, but really it was simple… oh and for all of you who don’t know how to sew (we need to fix that) this is a no sew costume.

Taking measurements: I had Kiddo put on the band thing (which becomes the top of the dress) I folded over two inches at the top to create a little extra support for the straps, then measured from her belly button to the floor. Kiddo measured 24″, so this is my final length for the tulle strips.

First thing to do is to cut all your tulle into 4″ strips. Very Important! – DO NOT UNFOLD THE TULLE! Keep it folded how is was on the bolt when you bought it, then fold it in half again along the length, and in half again. After folding you will have a piece of tulle that is the length of bought (1 or 2 yards) by roughly 6 to 10 inches. (In other words, when you are folding, you are folding the width to become 6 to 10 inches). This way when you cut your strips they will 1. be so much easier to cut and 2. will end up being 4″ by 102″ (or the width of the tulle you purchased). As for the length, I used 48″. (Why? because then folded in half the will be 24″ and that is the length of the skirt I needed for Kiddo.) Carefully stack each color of tulle, now unfolded, and cut through all of it to create the length (bottom left photo above).

Next, and for the next few hours, fold one tulle strip in half (lengthwise) put fold through one hole in the bottom row of the band and pull through a few inches, this creates a loop. pull the ends of the tulle through that loop and pull tight. Repeat, to create the first row. On my first three rows, skipped every other hole in the band. The last row, I added tulle in each hole in the band. Tips for this portion: 1. put the band around something solid (I used a game box) to keep it slightly stretched and 2. make sure you stay in the same row of holes on the band.

After awhile you will have a super full tulle skirt attached to the band top. Then we added ribbon as straps and tied a bow at the shoulder. (Add the ribbon the same way as the tulle but at the top, on front and back). I also added a ribbon around the band to “stitch” the folded portion down. Simply weave the ribbon through the holes and tie a bow in the front.

Next we took candy garland apart and used the pieces as beads and made three new necklaces…easy peasy.

Lastly we made a fascinator, of course. By gathering some scraps of tulle, beading some left over “beads” from the garland and attaching the crown ornament all to a head band, we had the perfect candy queen fascinator.

Right before the halloween parade at school today we had a crown change. The fascinator “is not big enough.” Luckily I had an extra crown ornament and headband to make a big crown. All in all this is one of my favorite costumes for Kiddo- it is so her. Happy Halloween friends!

Sprinklings of my reality is a 31 day challenge…one day left!

Sprinklings: making dollars, for real

October 25, 2013October 26, 2013 | mollyeleen

First up, I actually intended to post this yesterday, I thought i did. So this morning when I saw that no one had read or commented I was shocked and saddened. Then I realized I didn’t publish it…mommy brain- yes. Then maybe it was not mommy brain but the stomach flu that I discover I had two hours later while praying to the porcelain god. Being sick sucks. You know what sucks even more, trying not to barf on your 10 week old baby while you are nursing and realize you have to run to the loo. Pure awesome.

So here you have it, yesterdays post which is now todays…triple checking I pushed publish this time.

____________

Yep it was time kiddo has some chores around here. So two weeks ago we sat down and made a list of simple chores she needs to do daily to earn two dollars every week. Money motivation- YES! Plus we sweetened the deal. There are extra chores to earn more money.

Never ones to actually have cash on hand I made these dollars (yes I guess we can add counterfeiter to my list of projects) that she can turn in when she earns enough for what ever item is important at the moment. Pretty ingenious I think. Plus cute!

I made a cute chat to print up once a week. Kiddo is not a fan of sitting at the dining table to have dinner. And honestly we haven’t been doing it much lately, and I don’t like that. But with Hubby at school many nights and Sneaky B, it’s just fallen off the radar. So it’s time to bring it back. We decided that Friday nights are family movie night so “being American” is a must and that makes Kiddo happy. Now she can earn one more night of eating while watching a show with a random chore. So far- we haven’t “been American” on an extra night.

And you know what so far so good, she has earned her four dollars for the two weeks plus an extra dollar. Who knew the girl likes to wash windows (aka the glass slider).

The plan is once she has done this for a bit, unacceptable behavior will cost her, literally. Maybe sassing will be fifty cents, whining a quarter and drawing on the furniture (yes we have this issue- I will share another day) will cost her a dollar.

Now that the plan is in place I need to follow through. Those that know me know this is a weak point, but I need to change to stay sane. (OH that sounds like a future post).

Sprinklings of my reality is a 31 day challenge…read them all

“Sneaky B’s” Nursery!

July 24, 2013 | mollyeleen

I know you have been waiting on pins and needles to see our master closet turned into Sneaky B’s nursery so here you go!

So this space was originally our master closet, we will call it a master closet because it is attached to the master bedroom. Each side has a five foot opening to a six foot by two foot space of hanging clothes and behind the pink hanging fabric is a second door to the bathroom. About two years ago, we changed this space to be his and her’s offices, mine was on the left, Hubby’s on the right. When we did that, we added a wall to wall hanging closet system in the master bedroom (thank you ikea!).

Today it’s a super cute (I think) nursery space for our sneaky baby who is due to arrive in less than 20 days! Can you believe it? I sure can’t, most of the time…but then, that’s just a “due date” right? It’s anyones guess when she will decide she is ready to “pop on out of that belly” as Kiddo says.

So here is how it went down. After days of clearing out (a special thanks to my Mama who helped big time with this!) and collecting new and thrifted items, it was time to put everything together.

The starting point was the fabric that is hanging behind the crib, like wallpaper. I loved the colors, not really baby girl but still girly enough without being all pink. Next came the birds, for some reason I wanted birds in the nursery space. Confession time…I hate birds, chickens, feathered friends. I don’t want them close to me, I don’t like that they poop while they fly, I don’t want to touch the feathers Kiddo finds EVERYWHERE, I don’t mind looking at them from far away, but yuck I don’t like them, so why I needed to have birds in the nursery I have no idea. At least they don’t have feathers and these ones are cute.

Okay, so back to the space. I had to find a “mini” sized crib, and thanks to the internet, that was super easy. This one is DaVinci Emily Convertable Mini Crib in white, I found it at diapers.com.

The chair I found at Ikea, it’s not what I was originally thinking, something soft, cozy, white…but I sat in this and loved it. Done. The piece next to the chair and the dresser where thrifted. Happy day!

The dresser was very dark but fantastic quality, so a bit of white paint = super cute dresser! Kiddo helped out too, with painting the space, she is a pro now that she helped paint her room you know.

So there you have it, Sneaky B’s Nursery. And now we wait… we are so excited for the day Sneaky B “pops on out of this tummy!”

We are getting so zzzzzzzzzzz

July 21, 2013 | mollyeleen

Alright, here we go, take 20 I think, in attempting to blog. Let me tell you, it’s not that I don’t have a ton to share. Here’s how it goes: Kiddo goes to bed, “dinner” dishes (my poor June Clever self has almost left the building… dinner as of late has been sad…but no one is starving) are done, pull out the laptop, get relatively comfy on the sofa, log in to wordpress, then I’m woken up by Hubby walking in the front door, home from school already… how on earth can it be 945 at night, I didn’t type one word. I keep falling asleep! It’s so annoying but I have to accept it I guess, I am just to busy for my own good. Freelance projects (yay!), summertime fun with Kiddo, normal household chores (most of them), getting ready for Sneaky Baby and being 9+months preggers, it makes sense to be passing out tired around 730. Oye! It’s still annoying, but I guess it’s my world as of now

Okay to the fun stuff! We are basically ready for Sneaky baby to arrive! Her nursery is almost done, just need to hang 3 pictures and put the sheets on the crib. Our room got a little make over too, there is nothing like new bedding I tell you! The office/dining room just needs one shelf hung, although I really really want new dining chairs now (future project- YES!) and Kiddo’s room has been completed for a few weeks now. Drum roll please…Kiddo’s room: (you can see the before here)

Not a lot of change, but dark pink (the only color in the world) and not so “flowery”

Gosh she has way to much stuff! And we donated bags of toys too… note to self Kiddo doesn’t need anything else. The princess silhouettes we made a few weeks ago turned out pretty cute I think.

While we have been cleaning out our little home, I do find it crazy annoying for my nesting self, yet funny at how unbelievably messy cleaning out can be. Case in point…

Not to mention, the stacks and stacks of crap we had hidden in closets. Really, this beautiful pile was over two feet high

And of course, one of the best yet, “O” magazine about de-cluttering pulled out from under the bed. Although cleaning out is exhausting, truly it feels like we are moving, it is so nice to know that there isn’t one thing in this little home that we don’t need. Plus the amount of donations we have made is amazing…car loads (at least 5) off to our local SPCA. Good for the heart I tell ya.

Stay tuned… I will be sharing the other spaces, if I can keep my eyes open, maybe even tomorrow 😉

a date!

June 29, 2013 | mollyeleen

Not a romantic date with Hubby, unfortunately, but a reminder of one of the happiest days in our lives. I can’t take any credit for this idea because of course I saw it on pinterest, shocking I know. But I loved it and now, or very soon, it will be hanging somewhere in our home.

With all of the cleaning out and moving furniture around it was nice to be creative for an afternoon. It also helped that is was freaking hot here today! (Your out of control Mother Nature!) On any normal day, we would not be venturing out in this heat and being preggers, NO WAY… not even to the car thank you!

So here is what I did, so simple and effective. A few weeks ago I bought this “lovely” painting while out thrifting to use as a canvas for $2 – SCORE!

With a little white and gray paint, printed out numbers and some patience….

“Lovely” painting is now white and of course Kiddo was painting too, the only way to get anything creative done with a 4 year old, is to have something creative for her to do to, at least in this house.

Layout the numbers how you would like them, trace around cut out prints, calmly paint and….

I have a new painting to hang and a reminder of our wedding date! I do know where it’s going, but I can’t show you until I have the room completed, right now it’s a disaster of half moved office space, piles of donations and an overwhelming amount of stuff to figure out what to do with (toss it Molly!). But I will show you soon, geez we only have 6 weeks till Sneaky Baby is due to arrive, not much time left to get everything done!

Speaking of showing you the “after” photos, in the last post I mentioned the Kiddo’s big girl room was completed and I would be sharing….well, I found a new vanity for her, the one we made here, just wasn’t cutting it anymore and this new one is so cute. Once it’s finished being painted I will show your the awesome find and the big girl room!

The massive, overwhelming to do

June 5, 2013 | mollyeleen

We have been so busy, it’s exhausting! As in I have been reading a book now for two months and I am only on page 50, I just pass out by the time I climb into bed, arrange the crazy amount of pillows around by huge belly, grab my book and zzzzzzz— out cold. With the end of the school year craziness (even for a pre-schooler), a few free-lance design projects in the works, planning for Sneaky baby and being 30 weeks pregnant, it all makes me tired.

And today I’m overwhelmed. Totally and completely. It’s the first day in weeks kiddo and I just stayed home. Being home all day made me realize how much needs to be done before August. I spent most of the morning wandering around our small home, just wandering. Looking at furniture, walls, paintings, the dirty carpet, the dining chairs I can’t stand anymore, the kiddos room, the coo-coo clock still in the box, the mirrors I want to hang, the massive pile of laundry (didn’t I just do the laundry?)…just wandering around thinking “I need to get busy, but where to start?”

By the time Kiddo was ready for lunch, I decided to stop wandering around and just make “THE” to do list. “That’s what needs to happen, write it all down, make a plan, that will be the best thing to do.” Five pages later, it’s all on paper, or it’s at least started. And seeing the list doesn’t make me crazy, it’s almost calming, almost being the key word, it’s still overwhelming – very, but I know what needs to happen.

Among the list are things I will be sharing, like how we are going to change our office closets (which was at one point was our master closets) into Sneaky baby’s nursery. A tutorial or two will be coming too. Many things to sew and create are on my list for the nursery.

How the dining room is going to transform into an office & dining room.

Kiddo’s room will be transformed too. Since she is the big sister, her room will be first, she already picked out the fabric. We have a few projects planned too, thanks to Pinterest and the fact that I have gotten Kiddo addicted to looking at my boards for “something creative to do,” secretly I am very proud of this.

There are many steps to getting ready but it all starts Friday, when my mama is coming up to help me start packing a few things up for storage and Saturday when Hubby will be moving furniture around…

Any-who, I hope you will be along for this 8 week ride into transforming our little 1000 square foot home to welcome Sneaky baby in mid-August. I am sure there will be great successes, quite a few laughs and probably a few tears- albeit hormones or otherwise.

Today brings an entire new….

May 12, 2013 | mollyeleen

meaning & a tutorial of sorts.

Happy Mama’s day to all the mama’s out there. It’s extra special for me. The shock of the wonderful surprise of having a baby in a few months has finally worn off. Don’t get me wrong, I am still very overwhelmed at times, but so giddy it’s ridiculous I can honestly say when I was preggo with Kiddo, I loved feeling her kick, but now with Sneaky-B it’s an entire new level of love. That is to say, I never thought I would feel a baby kicking in my belly again. As the mama’s know it’s an awesome feeling and I am more than ever cherishing every little movement Sneaky-B has.

Today I got to spend the morning at the Antique Flea Market in Sacramento with my good friends and my mama. It’s was so much fun! Why hadn’t I gone to this before? I don’t know, it might have to become my monthly mama outing. Here’s what I scored:

I have been looking for a coo-coo clock for quite some time, don’t really know why, but I have always wanted one. Am very excited about it. The coo-coo clock and the mailbox will both be getting a facelift, you know I will share the outcome with you. For today, I have a simple paper rosette award to show you.

I made this little canvas for my mama for today. I think it turned out cute and she loved it. Happy Day. Here are the steps to make the paper rosette for the award.

Start by cutting out a few strips of paper. The width should be half of the size you want your completed rosette to be. For example, I wanted my finished rosette to be 3 inches across, so each strip is 1 1/2″ wide. The length is really up to you, the longer it is the fuller the rosette will look. Here I used 8″ paper, so over all I had 24″. Accordion fold each strip folding back and forth about a 1/4″ wide folds. Glue the accordion stips together to form one piece. Let that dry for a few minutes then glue into a cylinder (see left photo below).

Now that you have let your accordion cylinder dry for a few minutes, take a scrap of paper, smaller than your final size rosette will be, add some glue to this. Pinch in the top of the cylinder and gently push down… waa-la…you have an paper rosette. Carefully lift this up and set in on top of the paper scrap with glue. Set something a bit heavy on top of rosette to keep it in place while it dries, I use the glue bottle.

When it’s dry, add some cute cut outs, buttons, reinstones, whatever you want…ta da… a super cute paper rosette award.

Thanks for reading this random mama’s day post… it’s a bit all over the place, kind of like me lately.

molly b

creating, stitching, designing, thrifting

designing