s April 2014 - The Kim Six Fix
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My Baby is One! (Celebrating with Polka Dot Cakes)

Babys first birthday
I can’t believe it has been exactly one year since I proudly announced the arrival of my baby boy.

ONE YEAR!
Birthday candle
Time has flown by and I can’t believe how much the baby has changed. They grow up so fast.. maybe even too fast.  *sniffle*

I have blogged multiple times about the importance of birthday cakes in our family.  From Princess Dinosaurs, to cupcakes baked inside ice cream cones, birthdays always mean cake.    So of course for this big day we had cake.

This was a little experiment I wanted to try using cake balls baked into a full size cake.  It was actually really simple, and I trusted the girls to help with a lot of it.
Birthday cake
We also made mini versions (specifically since we wanted the baby to have a ‘smash cake’ that he could destroy):
Polka dot cupcakes

Today I also thought I would share what I learned in case anyone else wanted to attempt their own version.

Filing Cabinet Transformation Using Plastic Light Diffusers

Filing cabinet makeover
On the way to school one morning I saw this 4-drawer filing cabinet on the side of the road with the word “FREE” spelled out in duct tape
Filing cabinet before
It was in pretty good shape, a few nicks and a little bit of rust at the bottom, but all-in-all, not a bad curbside find.   I didn’t really need an additional file storage in the house, but I can always use storage in the garage so I decided to make it over so it looked less like a piece of office furniture.

I removed the hardware from the front of the drawers and started with a nice blank slate:

Flashback Friday: Encouraging My Own Little DIYers!


"Vintage" Welcome Sign from an Ikea Cabinet Door


When I saw The Rustic Pig's Ironing Board turned Welcome Sign on Pinterest a while back I loved how it looked propped up on the front doorstep.  I have been keeping my eye out at the flea markets and thrift stores for an old ironing board, but that has been an impossible mission.
This image isn't pinable, please use original source
But then, on one of my many trips to the Ikea “as-is” section (although this happened to be the same trip I also picked up the cabinet door I used for the kids' backpack station) I saw this long tall door for only $2 and I knew it would be perfect to convert!

Ikea cabinet door
 (This was originally a floor model display door from a sample kitchen,  it is really a Lidingo 15x64 door panel, which retails for $134! I'm telling you.. ALWAYS CHECK THE AS-IS DEPARTMENT!) 

My original idea was to stencil the word “Welcome” on it in black and call it a day, but I decided I wanted more of the aged vintage look like the original.

Crayon Vase Teacher Gift: Because Teachers Change Lives

Crayon vase teacher gift
Teacher appreciation week is right around the corner and so the girls and I wanted to make something for their teachers.

I have been so blessed to have wonderful teachers in my children’s lives.
Kindy teacher
After the horrific tragedy in Sandy Hook, when all those babies lost their lives huddled behind their teachers, it made me pause and reflect on just how lucky I am to have such fabulous dedicated people not only teaching, but truly caring about my children.

Second only to our family, their teachers are the most important people in their lives.  People they spend a huge part of their day with, people who influence them and shape them into the young men and women they will become.
First grade teacher
I am keenly aware that teachers don’t really need another coffee cup or little nick-knack like this vase.  When we make gifts for the teachers, we also always attach a gift card, or something they need or want for the classroom.

Sure, the “gift of classroom supplies” may not sound exciting, but when you realize that 9 out of 10 teachers buy supplies for their students with their OWN money, you realize how meaningful it really is.

Taking some of the financial burden off of our teachers is always appreciated, but that doesn’t mean your gift has to be impersonal.  That is why we decided to make this little vase  It cost us NOTHING (100% of the supplies were things we had on hand), and it made our otherwise boring gift, more personal.

 So how did we make it for free?

Happy Easter!

Just popping in to wish everyone (who celebrates it):

HAPPY EASTER!

The kids and I spent the weekend decorating our eggs (yeah, I put that off until the last minute).  This year I prepped 5 dozen!  We painted some, glittered some, dyed some.. A little bit of everything.  I blew half of them out and I hard boiled the other half.

The boiled ones we dyed with traditional food coloring:
Dyed eggs
The kids liked painting the blown ones with craft paint:.
Child painting easter egg
Painting easter egg
It is so funny how their eggs reflect their personalities.  Wild and loud and colorful from the 8 year old:

My Favorite Easter Posts (Flashback Friday)


Happy Friday! Can’t believe it is already Easter weekend.  Even with all the talk about how ‘late’ Easter fell this year,  it STILL feels like it snuck up on me.

Personalized Maritime Signal Flag Art


When I was working on the baby’s nursery I knew I wanted something personalized in the wall art.  I didn’t want something as obvious as a giant monogram, but something that was more subtle and would blend in with the ‘nautical’ theme.

I knew that ships use standard International Maritime signal flags that represent letters of the alphabet.  I thought that would be the perfect solution.
Nautical flag alphabet
image source
To display them I thought I could replace the photographs in my clothesline frame with mini fabric signal flags.
 

Because the frame was so long I decided to write out the baby’s name, JOSH, instead of just his initials. When I sat down and drew out the actual signal flags this is what I came up with:
Nautical Flag JOSH
Juliet-Oscar-Sierra-Hotel
I wanted the flags to hang down, more like real flags so I stretched the design so they were more clearly

No-Sew Fabric Banner (Silhouette Fabric Lettering Tutorial)

No Sew Fabric Banner
Today I am sharing a tutorial on the Easter banner I used on my mantle this year.

I constructed it using my Silhouette although you could make a similar banner without one (the way I made my “He Is Risen” banner), but the silhouette does make it a lot easier (and faster.)  This is also my submission project for April's Silhouette Challenge.  There are dozens of wonderful projects linked up to this blog hop and I would encourage you to check them out (they are linked at the bottom of this post.)
I couldn’t find any really good online tutorials on working with fused fabric lettering, so I thought I would share how I got it to work.  There are plenty of tutorials out there on transferring large shapes, but keeping letters aligned and small details like the ‘dot’ on the letter i is much more complicated.  I wanted to transfer the fabric letters without distorting them or hand placing them one at a time.  

You also could use vinyl for a project like this, but I love the look (and unlimited color and pattern choices) of fabric.
Fabric wording banner
The first thing I did was decide on what I wanted the banner to say and which font I wanted.

My Little Girls Room Makeover (Flashback Friday)

Girls room before after
I have been having a blast over on Google+, discovering all sorts of new bloggers. Thanks to everyone who linked up to the Mommy is Coo Coo hop.  Keep your eye out for the notification that the shared circle is available! If you haven’t linked up yet.. there is still time! You have until the end of the weekend.

Now it is time for Flashback Friday! 

Today I am featuring the girls’ bedroom.   This was the first room I redid when we moved into our California house.  We moved from a 4 bedroom house in Boston to a 3 bedroom house, and so the girls suddenly had to share a room.   Therefore, to make it more acceptable I let them pick out the color, which was PINK, of course.  The actual paint color I ended up using was Martha Stewart’s Carnation.  (Details on the painting are in this post.)

Girls room before and after
To tone down the super pinky-ness of the room, I installed board and batten (the first time I ever did it).  Because of the textured walls I had to install giant sheets of MDF.  All the nitty gritty details including a breakdown of the $300 budget for the project can be found here.

Easter Mantle: Here Comes Peter Cottontail

Easter mantle
Last week I posted my my other easter mantle, which was pretty whimsical and fun.  But since I have one more fireplace I also wanted to have a more subtle version.

I thought this time I would focus on bunnies, specifically Peter Cottontail.   I had this thrift store rabbit which was crackle finished and a little galvanized pail I found at the thrift store for $3.  I filled it with the leftover forsythia stems that I actually ripped off an old wreath that I ended up repurposing. (Moral of the story: don’t throw anything away!)  I also reused my twine wrapped eggs since they are adorable!
Easter vignette
The other side was made up of some dollar store stems in a vase I spray painted, and my clothesline wrapped eggs.Wrapped eggs
The big statement piece was the no-sew “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” Banner which is made using my Silhouette and fusible interfacing.   It is strung on some of the leftover clothesline that I wrapped the eggs with. (I am going to have a super detailed tutorial coming up next week on it, since working with fabric in your Silhouette is a whole ‘nother ball of wax!)
Easter banner

Guest/Kid Bathroom Makeover (Flashback Friday)

Friday already? The days are just flying!  I’m still working on getting all my spring and Easter stuff up, but today I am taking a break to post the relatively dramatic change that happened in the kids’ bathroom (which also is the guest bathroom) with nothing much more than paint and a little lumber.

The full original reveal from 2011 can be seen here, and here is what it looks like today, more than 3 years later.

The first thing I did was take down the old brass sliding shower door and replaced it with a curtain (Full tutorial on that is a previous flashback Friday post)
Removing shower door
We lived with the bathroom for a while like this until I couldn’t stand it for one more minute and decided it was time for a major (albeit cosmetic) overhaul.

I painted the walls (Martha Stewart’s Buckwheat Flour) and added a window treatment.  I didn’t want a color that was too dark, but I needed a lot more contrast between the molding and the walls.  Bathroom window remodelAlso, a quick tip: See how the curtain/valance is hung COMPLETELY above the window?  It makes the long thin window look taller and doesn’t block any of the much needed natural light.

The most dramatic difference was cutting down and framing the mirror (full tutorial here.)

Easter Mantle 2104: Ready For Spring

Easter mantle decorations
I’m pretty excited to be writing this post today.. I am showing you my Easter Mantle for 2014 and you know what that means?

SPRING IS HERE!!

Although the weather has been pretty good in Northern California, it is nice for spring to ‘officially’ be here since that means school is wrapping up, spring sports are starting and we are just that much closer to summer.

So in celebration of the start of spring.. I present my Easter mantle for 2014 (or at least one of them):  Of course at the heart of it is our pom pom trees.. They are still one of my favorite craft projects I have done with my girls:
Spring mantle

And since I was on a pom pom kick, I added a garland too.  I just strung them on a thread using a needle.  This one garland used one dollar store bag (80) pom poms.
Pom pom garland

I used three baskets I picked up at the dollar store and filled them with different types of eggs.

Colorful Spring Pom Pom Trees (Kid Friendly Craft)

Spring Pom Pom Trees
Today’s craft was a super big hit with my kids.  I post a lot of kids crafts and although the girls usually think enjoy them a little bit, by the end of the project they are usually happy to be done.  That wasn’t the case with these pom pom trees.
I’m not sure if it is just because they loved the pom poms or they like gluing stuff.. but for whatever reason, they didn’t want to stop working on these trees.  So much so, that we went back to the store for THREE MORE BAGS of pom poms!
Bag of pom poms
The supplies for these fuzzy little trees are super straight forward.  Pom poms (I got mine at the dollar store), posterboard, some tape and glue.
The first thing I needed to do was shape the cones. I used poster board and traced a large circle out using the top of my laundry hamper as a template. (you could eyeball it too, but my hand drawn circles/cones are never truly round)
Tracing circle on posterboard
Next divide the circle into quarters and tape the straight edges together (that will give you a cone shape.) The larger the circle, the larger the cone (and more pom poms are required)






 
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