The Sh*T Balls Blanket

So do you all remember when I told you my Sassy friend Valerie was pregnant. Guess what, she had the kid!! WOO! A beautiful baby boy. I finally got to meet and snuggle him last night, and I had a blast. However, I’m an awesome (that’s sarcastic font) friend because I also wasn’t able to get her my baby gift until last night too. Valerie knew it was coming though and was kind enough to be patient and wait for it. However, I did have it done before the kid actually arrived though, in my defense.

Valerie pinned this blanket pattern on Pinterest along time ago, when she was looking for things for the nursery. I saw it and thought, hey I can do that. So I set out to make it happen. I started the blanket in August, following the pattern, thinking this will take me a few months, tops. NOPE!!! I literally finished the blanket about 2 days before the kid arrived in December. The picture with the pattern is deceptive, because it makes the blanket look baby size, but let me tell you, it’s actually big person size. 

Now I realize that the contrast is way off on that picture, mostly because the blanket was hard to photograph. So I’ve upped it so you can see the bobbles and the ruffles on the blanket better. The color is more of a cerulean blue as you can see in the following picture.

So the moral of the story is (is there really a moral happening here?) I finally got the beautiful blanket to the beautiful baby boy, and all seemed happy. YAY!

If you want one for yourself, don’t ask me, because I don’t know if I can handle making another sh*tball blanket anytime in the future. If you’re wondering where the name “sh*tball blanket” comes from, you have to count to make sure your bobbles or sh*tballs are in the correct place. Well I would get on a roll, realize I missed a bobble, exclaim “SH*TBalls” and then have to unravel the blanket. It gets a little frustrating. :-)

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Ps. Sorry for the delayed break in blogging, my camera broke over the Christmas break, so I’m a little behind on getting things photographed and posted.

Technorati Tags: baby,blanket,crochet,bobbles,sh*tballs,pinterest

Bedroom Re-do: I Hulk Hogan'ed those Curtains

"Well, it's time for another installment of the Castle Casa Bedroom Re-do. Today's topic will be curtains. Amy, would you like to tell us about the Curtains you recently hung in the newly decorated bedroom?" (Be sure to read that in your fake annoying smary talk show host voice!)

Well I don't know about you all, but my house is set to close to my neighbors house, to not feel comfortable without having curtains. Especially when my bedroom window matches up almost perfectly with their living room/kitchen. Taking the curtains down for 4.5 days was a big deal and a little disconcerting. So after painting the walls and finishing the stencil (huzzah) I got to cracking on those curtains.I pulled my inspiration from here and here. I love the stenciling on the first one, but have decided for now, to leave them plain.

My first stop was the Home Depot, where I purchased two 6x9 painters tarps/drop cloths at $9.98 a pop. I took those puppies home, and popped them in the washing machine with lots and lots of Fabric Softener.

After they were washed and dried. I went all Hulk Hogan on them. I measured half the distance of the cloth made a tiny snip with my scissors and RIIIIPPPED those suckers in half. Sadly you can't take pictures of yourself doing that (it would most likely be embarrassing) so imagine this is me, with painters tarps.

After ripping those suckers in half, I ironed the s*&t out of them. Now if any of you know me at all, you know I hate ironing. You also know I'm incredibly clumsy and am always hurting myself. Lets just saying ironing thick fabric in the middle of an extremely loud/close thunder storm wasn't a good idea. But I made it through without any major mishaps.

I ironed them, then hemmed them up on the 4 sides that were raw after my Hulk Hogan impression. Did a quick tube at the top and viola, this girl has curtains again. Sorry to all those nosy neighbors.

I love the thick linen texture against the wall color and the silk lampshades. I may decide to add some embellishment to the curtains in the future. From now, I'm happy with the plain linen look. At $4.99 a pop per curtain you can't go wrong.

Check back in for tomorrow's post which will cover the Lamp Re-do.

Bedroom Re-do: If I could snuggle with my accent wall, I would!

Gals (and guys), I have done alot of crafty stuff in my life. But I've never been more proud of something than what I'm showing you today. I'm in love LUST with this wall. I just sit on the bed and stare at it with adoring and slightly creepy eyes. If I could snuggle with this wall, I totally would. In fact I just might, later tonight.

Let me give you the low-down. When I started a Bedroom Pinboard on Pinterest a few months ago, this was one of my very first pins. I originally pinned this from Jones Design Company, you can see her original post here. The JDC blog is filled with lovely and inspiring images. She is also kind enough to supply a printable pattern and detailed instructions on how to create this beautiful stencil.

This project was easy but time intensive. It takes alot to trace the pattern on the wall and then paint each and every single one of them. I wish I'd kept count of how many there were. For detailed directions, be sure to visit JDC and her blog post, she explains it 100x better than I ever could. But let me show you some in progress pictures.

Here I am, tracing the pattern on the wall. I traced the entire wall and my lovely, beautiful, trooper of a friend Jacie got started on the painting.

Jacie painted and painted and painted and...well you get the idea. Eventually she had to go home and put my 2 favorite "nieces" to bed, so I was left to struggle on by my lonesome.

I made it to the window before I called it quits the first night. The next night, I kept plugging away and finished it all. Here is the final look without any distractions. (I'm sorry the pictures are dark, I took these at night, obviously.)

After I finished up, I moved onto another project and gave the paint about 2 hours to dry. Then in my excitement, I moved in my new nightstands, freshly sewn curtains, repainted lamps, and the bed. (Don't worry, all those are going to be detailed in posts to come.) The bed had been freshly made, so be impressed with that.

In the name of being honest in blog land, I do have to tell you that the window messed my pattern up, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how/why. So I have a few (and there is no sensitive way to say this) dee-dee-dee places. 2 to be exact. And they are thankfully covered by the curtains, but even if they weren't I'd still love LUST after the wall just as much.

In case you were wondering, the wall color is Intense Teal by Behr and the stencil color is FolkArt craft paint in Metallic Champagne. One more time let's marvel at its gorgeousness. So you don't have to scroll up, here it is again.

Bedroom Re-do: To Do List

You all have seen that it started here. Even though it took me forever to get started, ya'll I'm running with it now. I will be taking a short break tonight, to craft Christmas Ornaments with my girlfriends, but Saturday and Sunday are booked with Bedroom re-do items.
 
Let me give you a sneak peek at the to-do list:

1. Repaint bedroom - Intense Teal by Behr (done! woo woo!)
2. find new side tables - (found and purchased at the Maj-R Savor)
3. refinish side tables
4. new lamps (found and purchased at Good Will)
5. repaint lamps & get new drum shades
6. repaint dresser (my mom purchased me a new dresser so there will be some furniture shuffling as well)
7. Make a tufted headboard ( I have the fabric, need wood and foam)
8. Flip fan blades over to the dark wood side
9. new bedding (done)
10. Throw pillows (I have the fabric, need to sew them up)
11. Stencil the wall behind the bed (doing this Sunday, I'm pretty excited)
12. new curtains
13. reupholster the hope chest top (I've got the fabric, happening Saturday!)

 So this is what is upcoming:
#3, 5, 6 and 13 are scheduled for Saturday. #11 is scheduled for Sunday. Wish me luck!

Found:http://pinterest.com/pin/85783901/ This is what I'm going to attempt to do in the bedroom!