T-shirt Upcycle

I've been searching for a short-sleeved brown cardigan all summer with no luck.  I bought a $5 t-shirt at JcPenney's last month.  I cut half of it off from the bottom and cut up the middle.  I had brown shoe laces that I cut down (burned the cut ends to keep them from raveling) and sewed into the V-nceck of the shirt.  Simple and goes with all 3 sleeve-less dresses that I needed to cover up.

Next shirt, just didn't fit well anymore.  I was going to give to Goodwill, but decided to experiment on it.  All I did was cut up the middle to the buttons.  I tried it on with 3 different outfits.

Here is another shirt exactly like it not cut and the cut version.

Shirt #3 I got a little fancy with.  I cut off the bottom hem and cut up the middle to the buttons.  I sewed the hem into a ruffle and attached over the buttons.

Identical shirt not cut & new shirt:

Bi-Fold be gone!

Over the past month we've replaced curtains and all the bi-fold closet doors.

This is our 2nd bedroom/office/tv room about a year ago:

Here is as a tv room last week.  We repainted a blue, added painters tarps as curtains for window & closet.

Bedroom a year ago:

Last week.  Curtains & rod from Ikea.

We can't believe how much extra room we have to get into the closets without the doors in the way.  We saved them in our attic, just in case we ever move (not like it's going to happen anytime soon).

Pantry love!

We've been in our house for 9 years.  When we moved in their was a coat closet in the dining room and none anywhere else.  We turned the closet into a pantry with plastic shelving for about a year, then put in a closetmate kit.  8 years later we finally turned into a much more efficient pantry.


We rescued some 2x4's that were getting tossed, purchased a 4'x8' sheet of plywood at Home Depot and they even cut into the dimensions we needed for no extra cost.  Only took the guy 2 mins to cut it, would have taken us hours.  Plywood was $12.


We sanded and painted the shelves a leftover light brown we had.  Much to his dismay, hubby painted the whole closet interior a left-over lime green we had.  We took down the bi-fold doors and added a curtain rod ($2 at garage sale) and curtain (already had) as the temporary door.  I have a real door on my Christmas list so we can hang the broom, swiffers, etc on the back of it.  At this time the curtain is nice, but not childproof if we have any little ones come visit.
  
I went to the Dollar Tree and purchased $12 worth of organizers. I had a ball putting everything in it's new home.  Total of 12 hours work time and $25 in materials and I have a new happy pantry!

 Before

 Took everything out

 

Painted

Curtain "door" & Shelves

 All filled & organized

 Bottom 2 shelves: Cat Food, Step Stool, Recycling bin & brown bags

  Next 2 shelves: canned goods and all cleaning cloths, baggies & hand towels, etc

 Top 2 shelves: Pizza oven, plastic shopping bags, picnic items, etc

 Curtain closed (needs to be steamed - kinda wrinkly)

Moved tupperware to cupboard we used to have all the canned goods in kitchen

Curtains

I've seen a few ideas online to "make" your own curtain.

Before, tab top white curtains....

 After tan, clipped on curtain...

This Curtain is a canvas drop cloth with Ikea curtain clip hooks.  Total cost $16.

In our bedroom we wanted a similar change from white to tan, but went to traditional tab top curtains.  Ikea for the pair was $20.

Before, white gromet curtains.

 After, tan tab-top.  I love that they pool at the floor...although we want to raise the curtain rod eventually.

 Curtains closed.  They block out more light in the morning and warm up the room a little with a new color.

Spray Paint!!

The humidity finally lifted and I couldn't sleep so at 6am this morning I was out spray painting baskets and bird houses in my garage! :)

 Fun, fun, fun!!!

 Got this wood bucket at Goodwill for $3

Spray Painted it Red...now I need to re-paint the chalkboard portion!  Red is a very hard color to paint...even with primer.  Up close this looks horrible!

 We've had this basket in our bathroom for years holding towels - it was time for a face-lift.

New & improved Aqua basket!

 Got a 3 basket set w/ liners at a garage sale last month for $2.  

I painted one of them green...plan to paint the others soon, also.

3 birdhouses that I painted today.  

I plan to add some embellishments and mod podge the heck out of them so they can sit on our deck.

Also, here's the finished product of my new dining room shelves.  Hung back the pictures and added a few more touches.  Hubby asked where some of the things came from - I just moved them from other places.  He said some of them he doesn't remember seeing before.  haha.  I promise nothing up there is new, except the shelves.

More shelves!!!!

I've been dreaming of a china cabinet for years, with the intent to display my colorful dishes & have more storage.  I haven't found the right china cabinet or the right priced one.  Looking for ideas we went to Ikea (we never leave empty handed) and found a nice shelf that would be "good enough" for $40.

Dear Hubby hung them up and now I'm ready to display & decorate!!

Before & Off-Centered between window & sliding glass door

In process - we moved it (covering up a precious outlet) to make it centered

After: With my dishes displayed.  Love that things don't have to be matchy-matchy (since Ikea doesn't carry this same wood color from 4 years ago).

I love seeing all my pretty dishes
11 years after picking them out we still love them!

Back in the crafting sadle...

After about a 6 week kids ministry marathon, I'm back to my "normal life."  

While I didn't make these, I got them at the dollar spot at Michaels.  I did add 2-3 coats of mod podge in order to keep them clean.  Hubby hung them on the kitchen wall.  Love the colors!

Our church had a garage sale this weekend and I scored a few awesome finds for $1-$2 each and then had some fun with spray paint and my Cricut.

 Before, a pink star

After, a black star

 Before: a black chipped tin square

After, a turquoise square tin

 Before, a blank double glass frame

After, a baby gift for a friend

This weekend we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday.  We found a cute glass drink dispenser at Target and visions of Cricut cartridges ran through my mind! :)

Before

 After, orange & blue polka-dots with the word "Enjoy!" on it.

Added a little color inside for emphasis!  It's so pretty.

Also, got a blank wood garden sign at the garage sale.  I painted it turquoise and added Cricut letters and 5 layers of mod podge...it's so cute I wanted to keep it myself.  I did give it to my mother-in-law.