Rosettes

I've been into making rosettes lately. They are fun, easy, and super cute! It all started when I made my daughter's flower girl headband for my sister's wedding. It turned out just as I had hoped it would! Here it is along with one precious flower girl:-)

So for my next rosette project I decided to make some to dress up my plain lamp shade in the living room. I used silky ribbon to make the headband and fabric for this project. Here is the link to the tutorial I used to make the headband: http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-hair-band-tutorial.html. And I used the same strategy for the lamp shade rosettes. I'll give you my version as well.

I started out by cutting three strips of fabric about 2" wide (does not have to be exact) and a little over a foot long.

Next, I folded them in half and hot glued them together.

After that, I tied a knot at the end of each one.

Then I began wrapping the fabric around the knot, twisting as I went. Also hot gluing sections here and there {more on that in a minute}.

Sorry for the dark photo. Here I'm showing a section I'm about to glue down. I put the hot glue behind the front of the rose and press the new piece down. This technique ensures no messy hot glue will be showing. But be careful not to burn your fingers!

And there you have it! A cutesy little rose! Oh yeah, and just glue the end piece to the back of the rose so it doesn't stick out.

I made two more and glued them all together. I also had some pearls leftover from the headband so I stuck those in the middle of each one. I liked the look, but did not like how they sat on top. I would have preferred to nestle them down into a fold, but then they wouldn't have been centered {more on how I solved this problem later}.

I hot glued them onto the lamp. I wasn't sure how I wanted to attach them...I wanted something temporary in case I wanted to take them off someday. But I also wanted them to stick on there well so I went with hot glue in hopes that if I ever take them off I can peel it away and no one will ever know (except you, of course!).

Not sure if you noticed, but the top rosette is made from the same pattern as my curtain panels! I wanted to tie them in together, but didn't want to use it for all 3 because I didn't want it to be too matchy matchy. What do you think? I love how this project only took me about an hour and gave my shade an upgrade!

{Pearl Update}

If you look closely, you may be able to notice a difference in the pearls from this shot compared to the close-up above. It's not that noticeable, but I like these new pearls better. They are actually stickers. What I like about them is they are flat on the back (essentially cut in half). So I took the old ones off and glued these new ones on with tacky glue. They are so small I didn't want to burn my fingers with hot glue.

Here they are...Martha Stewart stickers. I bought them from Michael's for $4.99. So they weren't cheap, but remember you can always use your 40% coupon.

Easy Curtain Panels

I had some off white curtain panels hanging between the windows in my living room. I loved them when I first got them, but after a while I thought something a little more bold would look good. I thought about a pop of color, but decided to stick with something neutral (like the rest of my living room) so it wouldn't clash with the kitchen. I chose a print I liked...I was a little nervous at first, but love how it turned out!! Sometimes being a little daring pays off!

Here's a tutorial on how to make them:

**Side note: I did not line my curtains because they were going in front of a wall. If you plan to make panels that will cover a window, you will want to line them.

I cheated and started off by laying my old curtain panel on top of my fabric:

I measured 3" out from the top and bottom for the hem.

And a couple inches on the sides. I pretty much just trimmed the selvage off and it left an inch or so for the hem. Here it is all cut out:

Next, I pinned one side...

And sewed from top to bottom. I'm showing my inexperience here, but I wanted to have a clean line and keep it straight so I sewed with the fabric facing me, making sure I had enough room on the back so the stitches wouldn't miss the fabric. It worked fine, but I had excess fabric on the back (sticking out after the seam). It didn't look very clean. I could have trimmed it, but I knew it would not show so I left it alone.

After sewing the sides, I folded and pinned the top down (allowing for a 3" seam). I sewed all the way across (even over the side seam). I used my old panel as an example to see how to sew the seams and in what order.

This is what the back looked like when I was all done...

And then I made another one! As you can see in the picture below I already had a rod with rings to clip on the curtain. But since I sewed a wide hem at the top I could have strung it through the rod as well. If you go that route, just keep in mind what length you want it/where you want the bottom of the curtain to hang. This was a pretty easy project and I love the difference it makes in our living room!! Check it out...

Before:                                                           

After:

From drab to fab with two easy curtain panels!! I think adding some color and pattern has warmed up the room, making it even cozier!:-)

Cluelessly Planting: Update!

If you recall my first 'Cluelessly Planting' post here...I was experimenting with different plant recommendations for indoors and outdoors. This update won't take long; none of them made it. Yes, it's true. I really do have a black thumb!! But I'm not ready to give up yet. And I'm 99% sure this bad boy on the right would have made it if my husband hadn't tampered with it...

The Ivy - Variegated Large Leaf Periwinkle/Vinca did awesome and lasted through the winter (although it was a mild one), but the Perennial - Mary Ann Lantana died (as expected), which was fine because I wanted to see if it would come back like it should. Well my husband wasn't aware and took it upon himself to replace the Perennial with another flower and stuck another plant in there as well. However, I didn't know he had added the plant because it looked a lot like the Ivy I had in there. Eventually his flower died too and his plant took over (killing my Ivy) and started growing upard, giving me a clue something was up (literally haha). All that aside, I would have to say the Ivy - Variegated Large Leaf Periwinkle/Vinca was the best as far as low maintenance and staying alive and all!

Although my plants didn't make it, I did learn some things. Mostly what not to do, but at least it will help me in the future. You have to start somewhere! A couple lessons I learned were; having my indoor plant where I would remember to water it was good, but I think I watered it too much and I found out my front yard is not such a good spot for potted plants because it gets direct sunlight all day long.

Side note: I thought you might be interested to know the red pot (remember how I spray painted it here) and the yellow pot (pictured at top) chipped when I had them outside (I moved the red pot outside after the Ivy died). They did not stand up to the weather. I was surprised because the red spray paint was for indoor/outdoor use and the yellow pot was from Marshall's. I guess I'll have to be more careful when choosing painted pots for outdoors? Any tips?



{A little less} Cluelessly Planting Round 2!

Spring and Summer have sprung (I'm a little late with this post) and so has our plant collection! This time I set out to Home Depot hoping to save a little $ and just sort of dove in without any expert advice. And it's really nice because they have everything laid out plain and simple so it's easy to understand. For example; which plants need shade, sun, part sun, house plants, etc. So here's what I came home with:

The two on the ends were potted already so I just stuck them out there to look pretty. The one in the middle I potted myself. The pink and purple flowers are Annuals and the yellow flowers are Marigolds. The lady at the register told me once the Marigolds die, you can snap the tops off and they will grow right back! And from what I've seen so far, she was right! I love Ivy, so I thought I would try a different kind. I came home with English Ivy. I loved it and saw it on display at Home Depot so I wanted to give it a try. I used their example to get some ideas. The English Ivy says "partial shade", but they had theirs in direct sunlight so I tried it out in the sun. Well, a couple weeks later it was starting to turn yellow and wasn't growing so I re-potted it and put it in the shade. Now it is thriving!!

                    May                                                  July

Here are some updated pictures of my pot o' flowers after removing the English Ivy. It is doing great!

                   May                                                  July

                                    
I am glad to have some good news for you! And wait...there's more!

Coleus:






















Another plant I decided to try is Coleus. My SIL highly recommended it and said it is very low maintenance so I was sold! I love the bright colors...from what I saw you can get them in green, purple or both (like mine).

Here's some advice if you are going to plant Coleus...they are very tender so be careful! I was telling my Dad about buying some and he said "Oh are those the really tender ones?" and I was like "I don't know?". But after planting them, sure enough, one of them just snapped right in half. If you look closely, you can see in the above picture how a big chunk of leaves is missing from the top-right plant. I planted it in hopes it would grow back or maybe the other two would flourish and no one would be able to tell. Grow back and flourish it did!!! Check out the difference a few months makes! This picture was taken recently. I guess they bloom this time of year...you can see two sprouty things (yes, that's the technical term) at the top if you look closely.



Even more good news! Looks like my SIL was right!:-)