I am trying to finish up my mud room or at least make it look like it could be finished! When I painted this room I took of the all the switch and outlet covers. They were UGLY and cream. My husband thought this could be our scheme for our entire house and all I could do was just say NO. I then went to Home Depot and other hardware stores in search of affordable and cute covers. I have some outlets that have three switches which seamed to make it hard to find what I was looking for. I left and was disappointed and just hoped that I could find something online. Well I found some beautiful covers but they were not affordable. I then decided that I could make these covers cute myself. I went to Walmart and picked up some beautiful paper, mod podge and some spray sealer. When I got home I gathered all the items I would need for this project:

Once I had all my materials, I cut the paper to the size I needed to cover the surface of the COVER! I cut an extra inch around the cover so that I will have enough paper to fold up. I then used my glue and adhered the paper to the cover:

I then flipped the cover back over and used my exact-o-knife to cut the holes for the switches:

I then glued the tiny little flaps (this part wasn’t so much fun!!) When I had all my covers for this room finished I took them outside and sprayed them with light coats of the satin sealer. I let them dry over night and here is the finished product:

I’m pretty happy with the end result. I plan on working from room to room until all of my covers coordinate with each room.

Since painting my living room, I have left my walls bare. When I sit in this room I just stare at the walls trying to decide what I should put up on them. I decided on the wall above my couch I would use some burlap. While searching many sites in blog land, I came across a few sites that used burlap in a number of different ways. I had begun to appreciate BURLAP! Now that I have a new love for burlap and I discovered how cheap it was at my local fabric store, I just had to find a project for this fabric. One day while staring at this particular wall I decided to get some different size and shape frames and cover them with burlap and I would hang them on this sad lonely wall.

Here is a picture of the materials needed for this project:

I measured and cut out each section of burlap to cover the frame. Once I had my sections cut I started gluing each section one at a time until the frame was covered.

I covered all my frames and then I laid them out on the floor to find the pattern I wanted hung up on the wall. I then hung them up and viola, my wall was no longer lonely!

Here is how my wall looks now. I seem to still stare at the frames on my wall as if something is missing. I’m wondering if I should paint an accent colour behind the frames to make them pop?????

The party is over and my house is almost all cleaned up and I realized that I forgot to mention that I got sooo many great ideas for this fabulous party from Kara’s Party Ideas. She threw a farmyard birthday party for her son and I just loved how her party turned.

I’m going to put a few of the decorations I made on E-Bay and I will see if I have any bidders!

Now the question is: what project am I going to start next? I could start thinking about Christmas or I could start working on our back room (that involves removing wallpaper) or both!

Knowing me, I will probably start both and my house will be a pigsty again!!

The big 1st birthday party was a success! All my planning, decorations, food and cake were a big hit. It was a ton of work but it was great to have all our loved ones together to celebrate our little guys 1st birthday. Here are loads of pictures to show off all the decorations and fun by all:

This is the room we put the food out in. I used cardboard to paint the barn and fence. The cows were Wallies that I glued on to cardboard and cut them out too. In these pictures you can also see the Happy Birthday sign and the centerpieces I made. I think this room turned out great!

I set up two tables in the back room of our house for people to sit and eat. I painted the cow spots on white paper tablecloths that I purchased at the dollar store.

In our living room I set up the drink table. We purchased the tin pale at Home Hardware for $20. We put all our drinks and ice in it to keep cool.

I made chocolate and caramel candy apples for our guests to take home with them. I had Vistaprint make labels for them.

These pictures show the garland I made out of left over fabric. In my last post I explained how to make a fabric garland.

The farm mural cut-out was a huge success. All most everyone took a turn getting their picture taken!

The sheep carrot cake. This cake was made with cream cheese icing, marshmellows and chocolate wafers.

* this cake almost didn’t make it! When I was carrying the cake out from the garage the cardboard base collapsed and I had to catch it with my fingers. Luckily I was some what able to fix this poor sheep’s face.

The cow chocolate cake. This cake was made with cookie crumbs, chocolate and vanilla wafers.

The pig white cake. This cake was made out of pink candies and chocolate wafers. I actually picked through the candies just for the pink ones!

The Thank You’s are ordered and now I need to get cleaning!!

It is three days till Sebastian’s birthday party and I am feeling rather calm. Yesterday, I finished that last few projects for the decorations. Here is a picture of a banner I made for people to poke their heads out and get their picture taken:

I purchased a yard of muslin from Lens Mill and sketched out the scene I wanted. Then came a lot of paint and time! I think that the end result is worth all my effort. My husband thinks that I am crazy and that I can not go to as much work for his second birthday. He has no idea!

A couple of days ago I realized that my hall and staircase when you walk in is going to look rather bare compared to the rest of the main floor. I decided to make a garland to drape across my staircase out of some left over fabric from other projects. Here is a picture of the equipment needed and the starting point:

I started by cutting the three different fabrics into strips. Once I had a stack to work with, I began knotting the fabric in random order around a jute string. In the photo, it does not look like much but the end result looks pretty cute and country! I will post photos of the garland and all the other decorations I have made over the past couple of weeks after I have them all in place for the party.