I was watching Rachel Ray, by th way, I am not a fan of her, while I was working out and they talked about updating your wardrobe easily.  One of them was this idea; however, they did not tell some basic good notes (I have included).

Supplies:

Bleach (3/4 water and 1/4 bleach)

White Vinegar (can use cooking vinegar, but more expensive)

paper or objects in which you like the design

100% cotton or natural fiber shirt, the darker the better.

Steps:

1. Gather Supplies (Image A)

2. Lay down newspaper and place the shirt on top.  (Image B)

3.  Place objects on the shirt and create the design you want.  (I used paper cut outs for this and the one problem I saw was the bleach bleed through the paper and did not create a “black and white” effect.)  (Image C)

4. Once you have your desired design, spray bleach on the shirt.  Where ever you spray the bleach, it will change the shirt color.

5. After a few minutes, I waited 10 – 15 minutes, spray on the vinegar.  You will be able to see the shirt change almost immediately.  (Image D)

6. You have finished.  If you would like to do the back, reverse and repeat steps 1-5. Becareful, however, when spraying the “neck hole” because you will bleach through and onto the back.

Images E  & F are the completed versionsd.

My husband & I were given a painted landscape of Texas Blue Bonnets for our wedding.  My family is from Texas and it is one of my mom’s most favorite things from that area.  Any ways, the frame needed some updating/touch ups.  So this past weekend, I painted it to give it a “fresher” look and go with out color scheme for the house.

March is the biggest and heaviest birthday month for my husband & I.  I have both of my in laws with several other people in our close family & friends we have to buy for.  We use this time to become more creative and learning how to cut cost where we can.  My husband is making sock creatures for his parents and we are getting them a few other small things.  I made my mother in law these earrings, which are shown below.  I am slowly trying to work on my jewelry skills.  With these earrings I am learning how to wrap the wire around with it looking neat & tidy.

When I got up from working night shift, I ran a few errands and then came home to make cookies!  YAY!  Cookies!!!  As you can see, I love sweets.  Below is the recipe that I made, a friend from work gave it to me.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs

Mix together

• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Mix & add to dry mixture.  Mix together and add 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips & 1 cup butterscotch chips.  Bake for 10-11 minutes.  They will not look completely done, but will continue to cook after you remove from the oven.  If you are using air bake cookie sheets, keep in the oven a little longer.

Domino Magazine will be closing.  The last issue is the March issue.  Below are some of my favorite inspirational pictures/designs!

Here are some entry ways:

Here are some living rooms:

Here are some kitchen/dining areas:

I just realized that I never posted pictures on the lamp my hubby & I redid SEVERAL months ago.  We found the lamp in a hidden attic and completely redid it.  The glass was broken, so we sanded and reglued it together.  We gave it all new wiring, & took off a few parts.  Repainted the whole thing and cleaned off every little piece.  I don’t have before pictures, which I am very sad about.  Here it is!

P nor I know if it is an old lantern from a train or one of the traffic stop lights.  We let my dad look at it to see if he could figure it out and he couldn’t.  I even did some research on the bulb to see if I could gather any information & I didn’t have any luck.

Today, I had a chance to actually work on some on going projects before work.  Since, I will not have a place to redo furniture, which I don’t have where we currently live, I am going to have to get several projects completed.

These projects include:

- a dresser

- two night stands

- a chest of drawers

- refinishing the top/table part of another night stand.

Lets just say I have my hands full.  Luckily I have completed

- Stripping & sanding the dresser, all it is needs is staining and varnishing

- I’m in the process of stripping the two night stands, which I was working on today.

I’m so happy that it will be nice for the rest of the week; therefore, I should have plenty of time to continue working on the pieces of furniture!  Yay!

I started on my first sewing project in order to give me practice, enter into my first contest of sorts, & give a gift to a friend.  I came up with a blanket, which would have wool/rayon felted flowers, which were then sewn onto the blanket.  This blanket would be the perfect size for a lap blanket.  It was definitely challenging to me.  It might have been easy for other, but not for me.  I also learned how to applique using the “sun”.  Here are are some pictures of it below: