Finished table runner

Our inspiration photo came out of a wedding magazine, and was just a plain burlap table runner on a white tablecloth.  The wedding reception will be outdoors in her backyard, and the overall feeling is to be casual but sophisticated.  We thought we could jazz up a plain table runner with a beautifully thick grosgrain ribbon in dark brown, one of the wedding colors.

To start with, you will need the following materials:

burlap – I bought a 100 yard roll of 14″ wide burlap.  Sooooo much easier just to cut the length.

Burlap 14″ wide

grosgrain ribbon – I bought 2, 50 yard rolls of 1- 1/2″ wide ribbon in dark brown.

Heat-n-bond – 100 yards of 7/8″ wide

scissors

iron

ironing board

Materials for Edging Burlap

optional:  cutting mat with rotary cutter, and L-square.

Cutting mat, rotary cutter and L square

Step one: Measure out the length of your table runner.  I made three table runners 10 feet long, and 4 of them 26 feet long. To measure, since I did not need things to be absolutely precise, I used the arm-length method.

Measure Burlap

I measured how long a yard (3 feet) is when one arm is outstretched– and found that it worked perfectly to where the one arm is outstretched, and my other hand meets my shoulder when folded in.  I used this for the first part of the measurement, and then used my cutting mat (with its handy dandy printed ruler) to measure out the remaining foot or two.

Step two: Cut the burlap in the desired length.  Here I used my L-square to get a straight line.

Cut straight line

Step three: Roll the burlap up.  This will make it so much easier to handle when attaching the ribbon, and will help keep it from wrinkling.

Roll up burlap

Step four: Plug in the iron and set it for whatever the heat-n-bond directions say.  Unroll a little bit of the burlap, and start attaching the heat-n-bond to long edge. As you got, roll up the burlap so that you can keep it neat-n-tidy.  Seriously, this helps keep everything so much easier to move and work with. Also, cut off any stray threads of burlap as you go.

Attach Heat-n-bond

Step five: When you finish one long edge, turn the thing over and go the other direction doing the exact same rolling method as you go.

Flip over and repeat

By the time you have finished attaching the heat-n-bond, you should be ready for …

Step six: Attach the ribbon to the heat-n-bond. Again, follow the instructions on your package.Notice I used 7/8″ heat-n-bond instead of 1-1/2″ wide.  I did this because I did want to have a little room (in case of error) and don’t mind the edges overlapping a little bit.

Attach grosgrain ribbon

I chose overlap the edge by about a quarter of an inch.

Back view of ribbon attached

Continue to attach the ribbon in the same way you attached the heat-n-bond.  Rolling the burlap up as you go, and flipping it over and going the other way when the first edge is done.  Now to finish the table runner…

Step seven:  Make sure your end is square, and attach heat-n-bond across the entire edge.

Step eight:  Add a small piece of heat-n-bond to one edge of ribbon, to finish the edge nicely.

Attach heat-n-bond to end of ribbon

Step nine: fold the ribbon over on itself and heat to create a nice finished looking edge.

Finished edge of ribbon

Step ten: Measure the length of the ribbon for the short edge, adding another inch for turning over.  Cut ribbon, and repeat finishing edge to ribbon on other side.  Be sure to make sure that each side of the ribbon is finished on the same side!

Finishing end of runner

Step eleven:  Attach the finished ribbon to the short end of the runner.

Finished end of table runner

Step twelve:  Re-roll the runner to get to the other short edge and repeat steps 7-11.

And voila! A fabulous burlap table runner with a grosgrain ribbon edge.  It looks beautiful and is versatile.

I used a short one for the surprise Bridal shower a few weeks ago.

Burlap Table Runner for Bridal Shower

Linking up to these parties:

Ceramic Heart Pendant Necklace

I had strung the four strands of pearly white/clear seed beads onto wax string many years ago for another project that I never finished.  I thought they looked really cute with the heart, so I delicately affixed the ends to a clamping bead.  Since they weren’t long enough of their own, I added a chunky chain for the back, with a clasp on the side.

Detail Chain and Clasp

For the heart pendant, I strung a silver wire through the hole several times, created a little bit of a loop to secure another jump ring to.

Detail Ceramic Heart Pendant

I think it’s pretty and casual.  Great to wear with a t-shirt and jeans when just going out and about.

We are now officially into the fifth week of this “ten-day” renovation of our master bathroom shower room.  Our little five foot by six foot room is getting a complete overhaul, and it is still not done.  I would wonder in a time like this if it would have actually been faster if we had done it ourselves (without knowing what we were doing).  I like how it is coming together– I think I chose the right products now and feel that everything looks great together.  But I am not happy with a number of things about this renovation, and where things stand at this point.  I am hoping that within the next week, everything will be fixed and finished up and we can finally have a bathroom again.

So one thing I love is our tile choices:

I chose a white 6″ by 6″ tile with an accent band of white 2″ by 8″ subway tile set off by a “biltmore” marble pencil tile.  I love how this looks.  Everything looks clean and bright, and the marble is gorgeous.  Originally, we had planned the marble accent to be a carerra marble tile, but all the tiles that came in only looked white with just enough gray to make them look dirty.  There was almost no veining in any of the tile, and it really looked awful.  Thankfully my husband saw it before they tiled the whole shower and stopped them.  On the downside, it set us back several days until they could reschedule.

I went to the Tile Shop in Richmond to find a replacement tile when we knew the carerra wouldn’t work.  They helped me immensely, and even took into the back to let me look through their selection of marble pencil tiles.  I knew this was the one as soon as I saw it.  It reminded me of “ming green” marble tiles that the designer Sarah Richardson likes to use in her projects.  We love her portfolio, so I knew Mr. Lucky would like it.  They had everything I needed in stock, and so we were ready to rock by the next day.

The tile is still not finished however– there is a small section along one side that is not finished, and there is another part that bumps out.

Bowed Out Tile

I think it’s from the drywall mud being too thick behind it.  I am so disappointed by this.  It looks much better grouted and caulked, but you can still see it sticking out some.  I would think that for the amount of money we are paying, and that this project is a complete gut- that it should be done right.  It should look good and be done well, and I find this unacceptable.  I could live with it if I had to, and it might not be noticeable once the shower door is in, but come on people.  Do it right the first time.

You can see in the picture above that the room has already been painted, and it’s a beautiful soft gray.  I need to look up the name, but I think it was Sherwin Williams’ “Passion.”  The electrician has been to visit us too, but installed the light fixture upside down.

New Light Fixture Upside Down

It’s the type of fixture you can install either up or down, but I had wanted it the other way, primarily so that I didn’t see the light bulbs.  When it is on, it just glares into my eyeballs.  Not fun.  But!  There is plenty of light in there now and it looks so much better than it did before!  Hopefully in another week I will have after shots for you.  In the meantime, tile needs to be fixed and finished, plumber needs to come out, and we need the shower door installed.

Here’s hoping we don’t get into week six….

March Snowstorm

We got about seven inches of snow!  But then exactly a week later we had daffodils blooming:

Daffodils 2013

Really?  The trees are starting to bud now, and I noticed my tulips have started coming up as well.

Our contractor told us that our shower room should be operational by next week (crossing our fingers).  I am so ready to have this little room back!!

And here’s a little teaser pic for you of the new floor:

New Floor in Shower room

And some more snow:

Railing Snow Sculpture

Shower Room Before

The shower room measures about five feet by six feet, and contained a small, glass-enclosed, corner shower and a toilet. One small fluorescent recessed light above the shower was all the light this little space had. One nice feature of this room, is that the ceilings are about fifteen feet high. Having such high ceilings certainly helps make it feel not so tight and cramped.

Odd Unused Space

Black Tiled Shower – not helping with keeping it light

We first knew we had some issues with this room when I found a little mushroom growing up in between the shower and the floor. After some inspection in the basement, we realized that there must be a leak, and now the entire subfloor was being eaten up by mold. We had mold experts come out and do tests at a time when we barely had a penny to spare, and thankfully everything tested to be within normal limits. At this point, we simply stopped using the shower, and realized that before we sold the house we would have to replace the shower and at least the floor in that little room. Fast-forward a few years, and we finally have some money in our savings account to do something.

Jetted Tub with Secret Cat Hideout

Living in this house for nearly five years, we have come to recognize the flaws and problems. The master bathroom is a cobbled piece of puppy poop. The main part of the bathroom has its own share of problems. Some problems including a jetted tub that was used before the house had a water treatment system in place, so it is stained Virginia clay red; the tiled opening to get to the electrical for the tub broke within the first week of us living in the house; and the vanity.  Oh the vanity!  Problem #1- bought at a second hand store (we think) it was originally an oak color that someone primed but never actually painted.  #2- the vanity was meant for a single sink, but they modified it to fit a double. This in an of itself is not a huge problem, but it means there is very little space on the counter, and the drawers were screwed in place so storage underneath is also crazy and not very easy to get to.

Cramped Double Sink – Keeping it real people!

We didn’t even realize there was a bottom drawer that pulls out across the entire vanity until a few months ago. Yay for extra storage! Boo because it’s really awkward to open and it’s broken up inside so the only thing that sort of fits are a few rolls of toilet paper.

Extra Storage – sort of

On top of it all, it, the sink, the faucets, the tile, and the floors are all just ugly, and none of the trim matches- each window and door opening had a different kind of trim around it accounting for a total of FOUR different looks.

Tile Trim Around Doorway – tile what?

It was all such craziness!  So to sell the house, we know we HAD to fix the shower room but I also thought it would look really pitiful to just fix that room and leave the rest of it looking like crap.  Excuse my language but really, I couldn’t see anyone walking into this bathroom and thinking they could live here.  So we saved our pennies and called one of our friends who happens to be a contractor, drew up a contract, and figured out what we could do.

Two weeks ago, demo started.  A really nice guy named Lloyd came out and ripped out everything in two days.  He did a great job, and called us in a few times to show us stuff and to ask questions.  First, we found that the mold did grow all over the subfloor, and you can see the outline of the shower stall. As we expected, the builder did not properly seal the shower (at all), and it leaked around the entire thing.

Yucky Subfloor

All of that went out, and new subfloor went in. Looking good there, non-spongey floor!

New Subfloor

Second item that presented itself was the fan/vent. We wanted to replace the fan with a better, quieter model that also had a light in it. Upon taking out the old fan, Lloyd noticed it was not actually venting to anywhere- it was just moving air into the attic. Awesome, NOT.  Talk about conditions for mold! Geeze, it’s almost like the builder of this house wanted mold to run rampant. Thankfully, we do not actually have any mold up there (maybe from not really using the shower much), and a few days later someone came out to put in a new vent that went into the soffit.

Before – One Light One Dinky Fan

Progress – New Fan Dry Fit

The third item that came to our attention were the walls in the room. Originally, there were these bump-outs that we thought existed for some reason.  But in taking down the drywall, we discovered there was no reason for them at all except to make the room smaller.  So down came the walls, and we added a few more square feet to our footprint. It did mean that we had to move the shower head to the opposite wall so that it wouldn’t be on an exterior wall. There was also just enough space to fit a five foot by three foot shower pan. We had thought at first with installing a four foot by three foot vinyl shower pan, but if we can fit an extra foot, do it!

Sheetrock Down Bumpouts Gone

The reason we chose a vinyl shower pan was mostly about money.  They are cheap and seamless. I really wanted a schluter shower system (as I’d seen them on Holmes on Homes) but no one here had even heard of it (really). Our contractor also repeatedly reminded us that since we are planning on selling in a few years, we don’t want to sink a ton of money into this bathroom (or the house in general).  Basically, spend just enough to look good and be right. So while a tiled shower floor would look awesome, we could not really justify a couple extra thousand dollars to spend on it. So here’s the new shower pan in place. They actually had to shave a little bit off a few of the studs to make it fit.

New Vinyl Shower Pan

A few days after demo, the electrician came in to do his thing. His list was short and sweet. We wanted to keep the existing recessed light, but add the new fan with light, and also a wall sconce so that Mr. Lucky could see what he was reading on the commode. He also moved all the switches to the outside of the room.

New Switches

The four switches turn each of the lights on and off separately, as well as the fan and its light separately. Thankfully, we did not get any bad news from him- the worst of it was having to stack two of the switches because there was not enough room for a four-switch box.

About a week later and everything has passed inspection and now we’re just waiting for the dry wall guys to show up. They had some other, larger job on their list that came first, so our “ten-day” reno is turning into three weeks. I’m mildly annoyed but not surprised. I really did expect it to take longer than predicted, but why can’t people just be up front about it? Oh well, hopefully everyone will show up this week and it will be done- except for the shower door.

New Shower Pan

Hopefully the remodel part 2 will be up next week, but don’t hold your breath about it.  Lucky me! I get a new bathroom (sort of)!

V-day Bunting

So my computer was out of commission for a little while, but things are back up and running now!

I wanted to share the Valentine’s Day bunting I made to hang up over our hearth.

Detail of Heart

While taking down the Christmas decorations this year, I decided to keep up the command strip hangers over the hearth, as I had an idea to do something for Valentine’s Day. A trip to Michael’s produced a small book of colorful scrapbooking paper, glittery ribbon, glittery clothespins, and some decorative sparkly hearts.  This was a super easy craft- I just cut the paper into triangles with scissors, punched a hole in the top corners, and strung the ribbon through. I pulled out some fabric heart ornaments I made a few years ago, and clipped them along with the decorative hearts onto the ribbon using the clothespins.

Detail Handmade Heart

I will say it’s not as cute as most other buntings I’ve seen online, but I like it. The best part is, nothing is glued so I can take the whole thing apart and reuse it or remake it into something else if I care to. Now that we’re into March, I’m thinking if there is anything else I want to put up or make that is more for Spring. More than anything though, I just need to clean and organize the house. Since I only have so much mental space to deal with cleaning and de-cluttering, I need to be careful how I allocate my time. Do I really want to spend all my cleaning time just cleaning up projects? Not really, because too much trash and clutter elsewhere eventually makes me anxious.

Flowers from my Sweetheart

Also, my sweet husband bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for V-day. I put them on top of one of the speakers because that is one of the few places the cats can’t get to them. Peanut loves to munch on anything green.

Dwell Studio for Robert Allen Fabric

The fabric does run in a specific direction, and I wanted to use it so I would have three rows of the medallions running down the table lengthwise.  I measured my table and my fabric to see what the best way of piecing it would be.  Getting a yard, I had just over 36″ to work with (they actually cut me 38″), and my table is 68″ long.  Knowing I wanted a couple inches of overhang, I doubled the fabric of the print but decided to add a block of solid fabric at either end in a coordinating color.  I had some old off-white cotton/linen that looks great with the pattern.

Off-white Cotton/Linen

Cutting my pieces to size, I wanted to seam the first two pieces so that it would look as close to seamless as possible.  To do this, I ironed a straight edge on one side of the fabric, and then placed it on the other fabric (making sure that the pattern runs in the same direction) and pinned it in place.  I sewed across the iron line.  Turn it right side out, iron flat.

Piecing Fabric Together to Match

I think I did a pretty good job of matching it up:

Lined up Fabric

I then cut the linen pieces to size, and pinned them to the edges.  I used a straightedge and pencil to mark the line, and sewed.  Turn right side out again, and iron.

Pin fabric together

I have really good eyes for seeing straight lines- so if you have any hesitancy at all, you should measure and pin your fabric in the next step.  Using the iron, make a crease along the long edges to sew.  I used the pattern itself to keep me straight and eyeballed it.

Iron edges

Looking at the underside of the fabric, cut out triangles where the folds will be so that you have less fabric to sew through (and that could bunch up).

Cut Triangle at Fold

Sew along the long sides, and again I did this just by sight.  I kept the edge of the fabric along the edge of the foot of the sewing machine to keep a straight line.  I used a cream colored thread that also coordinated with the fabric, and sewed along the right side of the fabric.

Sew with Fabric Edge at Edge

Again, ironing the edges flat, I now turned to the ends, and folded and ironed them in a straight line.  I tucked in the corners a little so that they wouldn’t protrude.  I used the same technique of placing my fabric at the edge of the foot, and did a double stitch at the beginning and ends.  Cut all loose threads, any excess fabric that you don’t want to add bulk, and iron everything flat.

Fold Fabric and Iron

So over the course of about 2 hours I think, I made a new table runner for Christmas!  I like that it can go with a couple of different colored tablecloths- but I was thinking about this red tablecloth I bought last year with a gift card.

Finished Edge of Table Runner

Of course I had to make it a little prettier for the shoot- more of those ornaments are in the Cindy Crawford bowl, surrounded by vintage silver candlesticks from my grandmother.

Christmas Table Runner

It feels like Christmas is practically on top of me already, even though we still have over a week to go.  Time to go make some cookies!

Holiday Hearth 2012

I actually bought some new decorations this year.  The two lanterns filled with ornaments on the left, and the swag with ribbon across the top are new.  I bought the lanterns from Old Kings Lane with “free-monee” from Capital One (sweet) and the swag and ribbon are both from Michaels.  The ornaments are from Home Goods.  I got a HUGE tub of them so I’ve been able to use some on a wreath (see here), and I’m hoping to put more out in random containers, as is the fashion.

Here’s a closeup of the lanterns:

Lanterns Filled with Ornaments

I am really digging the silver and gold theme this year.  Very muted and understated while being sophisticated and beautiful.  The thing in front of the lanterns is a flameless candle that was involved in a glitter explosion.  Said explosion must have been at the factory because I bought it looking like that (Michaels again, last year).

On the other side, I have placed my (very old) mini tree on top of a painted cheese box.  This cheese box I just gave a couple of light coats with off white spray paint.  At one point I wanted to actually paint something on it.  I may still do that.

Little Tree Vignette

The candle was a gift from a friend and smells like yummy cookies.  I decorated the tree with all mini-ball ornaments from Target.

I found this garland at Michaels this year and bought it with a coupon.  It has a mix of faux magnolia leaves, fruit, holly, and berries.  It has been painted silver and a little bit of gold.  The fruit must have been in the same glitter factory explosion.  The ribbon I just wound around it and hung the whole thing up with some command hooks.  Those things are awesome.

Detail Garland and Ribbon

It feels good to get things looking festive around here!

First, the very popular painted Chevron ceramic ornament:

Painted Chevron Ornament

With many thanks to Centsational Girl for featuring this craft last year!

The Little Joy project was another fun and easy craft:

Joy

And a lot of people seemed to like these Ribbon Trees:

Ribbon Tree vignette

So far, this year, I’ve posted about making a new Christmas Wreath, and I hope to post about more crafty projects soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

First Frost

I love how serene and calm the backyard is, especially very early in the morning.

Frost on Weed

I also started on Christmas decorations a couple of weeks ago.  I just now got around to uploading some pictures so I could show you my first project of the season– a new wreath!

Christmas Wreath 2012

I wanted something new this year, and since I had bought a huge tub of silver and gold ornaments from Home Goods for other decorating purposes, I put some to use here.  I bought the ribbon at 70% off at Michael’s, and I already had the grapevine wreath and spray.

Materials for Wreath

This is a super easy project to do, and there are tons of excellent tutorials on making wreaths out there.  For my wreath, I used the materials above and some florists wire (and wire cutters).

First, string a group of ornaments together, and secure tightly with wire.  I bunched up all my ornaments first so that I could position them on the wreath where I wanted them before securing them.

String Ornaments Together

I attached the spray to the wreath for with some wire, and then added the grouped ornaments.  I made a bow with the ribbon, attached it and styled it.  I love wired ribbon because you make it go pretty much where you want it.

Christmas Wreath 2012

I am contemplating adding some more ornaments, but probably not.

I am looking forward to having my family visit this Christmas!  It gives me more incentive to make the house look festive.  :)

Linking up to Centsational Girl and the Christmas Crafts Party