Cue the Chorus of Angels

Alleluia, Alleluia!   The porch is finished!

Thanks to my talented husband, we've gone from this (a slab of concrete):

to this:

After many many days/weeks/months/years of hard work, last week Frank left me with this beautiful blank slate.





And I have filled it with furniture and items I've been collecting for years now.  I have many tutorials and details to share.  For now let me just take you on a little photo tour...

From our foyer you get a glimpse through the dining room of the brightly colored pillows on the day bed.







Years ago I found these four cane chairs at the Habitat Re-Store, then painted and reupholstered them, thanks to an upholstery class I took.



My dream of a day bed on the porch has come true.  I sewed a zippered cover for the twin mattress, and created deep foam bolsters for the back cushions.  I'll have a tutorial about that coming up.  It really makes the bed feel more like a couch.  Until you want to toss those bolsters off and take a nice afternoon nap!



I picked up this old wood crate from a thrift shop.  Frank made a top for it, and I painted then distressed it.  More on that to come.








Here's our lovely 13 foot pew in all it's glory!  I haven't done a thing to it, other than wipe it down.  I had plans to paint it or strip it, but for now I'm liking it just fine.







 I picked up this old high chair from Craigslist.  We modified it to fit up to the table and I sewed a "strap" to hold our little girl in.  More on that to come.



These pine Windsor chairs were hand-me-downs.  I had plans to paint them too, but I think I'll sit on it (ha!) for a while.  That yellow-y wood usually bothers me, but I don't mind it so much here.  It's similar to a color in those Suzani pillows.







Extra seating waits for guests here.  We hung the folding chairs on bicycle racks.

This table sits right under our kitchen window and is a handy place to set out snacks or a buffet dinner. And my duck finally has a home, holding a dish towel.   Under the table I've stashed a few crates full of toys for EB.

I created a unique light strand out of collected jars.  I've had this vision forever and am so glad to see it come to life!  These lights create the perfect ambiance for a late evening gathering.  I've got a step-by-step for you coming soon.



Frank helped me make this huge chalkboard.  It's long enough so that kids can color below, and adults have space to write above. 





A screw secures a simple tin can to the wall to wrangle chalk and an eraser.



You guys, this space is more than I ever could have dreamed.  From the pale pale blue ceiling to the cool breeze from the ceiling fans, to the bright happy colors, I am totally in love!  I've spent most of my time out here since we finished (I'm stretched on the day bed as I type!).

There are a few more little projects to finish up, but I'm SO glad we have this space to use all summer.  It's still cool enough here in Brevard that we're living with the windows open, so this space truly feels like a new room in our home.  I have a feeling we'll be living out here for a good chunk of the year.  

Here's a look at some memories we've created here so far...









Last night we had a party, and the space worked so well.










Thank you, Frank, for building the porch of my dreams!  You are the best husband I could ever ask for.  Love you!

Thanks for sticking with me through this super long post, y'all!  Don't forget to come back to for future posts on:

• creating cushions for a day bed
• distressing new wood to match old wood
• creating a "strap" to hold a baby in an antique high chair (or any chair, really)
• how to make a twinkle lights out of collected jars (canning jars work well, too)
• making a giant chalkboard

This will probably be my last post before Haven.  Can't wait to meet many of you there!  Rhoda is one of the founders of Haven, and I'm linking up today to her fabulous porch party.   Click over to get lots of porch inspiration.  And if you don't already, you should be following along as she fixes up her sweet new-to-her home.  I'm so impressed with what she and her parents have done so far.  The transformation will be incredible, I can already tell!


(For more on our porch progress, click here, here, and here.)

Subscribe here or like me on Facebook to keep up with dC.

Pinterest Challenge: Custom Banner How-to

Some of my all-time favorite bloggers (Sherry and Katie are the authors of the first blogs I ever read and Cassie and Erin), are hosting a little challenge.

They've done this a couple times over the past year, and are at it again...challenging us to actually create something based on a pin from Pinterest.  You know how it is...we pin pin pin, but rarely take the next step and incorporate the ideas.  My most favorite recent pin is this beauty:

Source: dearlillie.com via domesti on Pinterest

  
As much as I'm itching to replicate this moveable growth chart, I had more pressing projects to do this weekend.

So, today I'll share a project I just finished up.  A few weeks ago I searched for some inspiration for EB's upcoming birthday (the big 0-1).  We're keeping it small with a just a few family members, but I still wanted to make a bit of an effort for the occasion.  Her birthday is March 17th, so of course we're going with a smidge of a St. Patty's theme.  I stumbled across this fun banner (original source here).
  

Source: hostessblog.com via domesti on Pinterest

After a little bit of work, I came up with my own take on it.  I'll give you a look at the final product first, then I'll share a detailed tutorial on how you can create one yourself.  We'll be displaying it this weekend for the big day, but I temporarily hung it in her room for these photos:

Wanna make one?  Tools you'll need:  word processing software (like Microsoft Word), printer and paper, scissors, card stock, patterned or colored paper to back each letter, pencil, glue stick, hole punch,  ribbon or twine

I started by creating the text on my computer.   used Microsoft Word, which is a little different on my Mac than it is on a PC, but the steps should be similar enough for you to follow them either way.

I found a free font on dafont.com  called Sherwood.  It has an Irish Celtic feel, and was perfect for this!   It was super easy to install on my computer, following their instructions.  To be clear, I'm not paid or perked by dafont (or anyone, for that matter) in any way.    

Here's a series of seven steps to create and print the letters:






















Now that you have your letters printed, you'll want to create a stencil in the shape you want the final cut-out to be.  I wanted a shield-ish shape.  (Other ideas: circles, triangles, ovals, rectangles...the possibilities are endless!)  I decided to cut the lower case letters smaller than the upper case, so I needed two different stencils.  For each of the sizes, I folded the piece of paper in half, along the center of the letter.  Then I free-handed half of the shape around it (so it would be symmetrical), and cut it out:

I then traced those two shapes on a piece of card stock (an old cereal box) and cut them out.  Next, I cut a hole in the center of each one and marked the center with two pencil lines (as you can see on the right in the photo below).  This allowed me eye-ball the center easily when I placed it over the letters. 

I was able to see the letters from the back side of the paper, so to avoid having pencil marks on the front, I worked from the back.

I centered the shape over the letter, and traced around the outside.





Next, I simply cut the letters out.  For the contrast backing, I had several sheets of the scrapbook paper leftover from a different project.  You could use construction paper or wrapping paper or old maps, or anything, really.  I created two more stencils, slightly larger than the two sizes of letters I had, and cut them all out.



Then I simply glued the letters onto the scrapbook paper, and punched holes in the corners.  I picked up some cute ribbon to use for stringing the letters together.  This 1/4" ribbon was perfect, as it's just wider than the holes, which causes the letters to stay put and not slide around, as they would with a skinnier string or twine.

You can string your letters in one of two ways:

with the ribbon exposed in the middle of the front

or with the ribbon exposed on the edges

I liked the look of the ribbon on the edges, so I laid out my letters and started stringing.



Taping off the end of the ribbon made the stringing really easy.


Then I hung it up!  These little suction cup hooks are great for temporarily hanging lightweight things on glass.



I can easily remove the "1st" for future birthdays, or could even use the "happy birthday" for other's birthdays.  That's the beauty of this kind of banner!

I have one more party craft I'll share with you guys next week.  I'll show you how I turned these felt circles into an adorable 30-foot garland in less than 30 minutes.  Come back to check it out!



Oh, and did you notice the "new" lamps in the nursery?  They're all done, and I'm working on a tutorial (for the "gold leaf" lining - for just a couple of bucks).  Here's a peek:

And, before I go, I have to show you EB's latest party trick.  Literally.  She's practicing for her "party" on Saturday.  How old is Elsie? you might ask...



That's right.  Proud Mama right here! 

Subscribe here or like me on Facebook to keep up with dC.