You Know, Birthin Kittens and Whatnot

Hi guys,

So, I didn't quite make my goal of uploading all of the weekend photos and sharing things I've been promising.

I did however, fulfill a precious request to be a midwife to my favorite feline Lola Lee Jackson :)

Cute little scrunchy eyed kitty photos to post, some really entertaining stories, and possssibly the funny labor video. I haven't decided on that yet, it's mostly of my very uncomfortable kitty and some priceless commentary from the resident princess in my household.

I also want to tell you about our 'wrist parties', some flylady lovin, refashioning, and some serious pondering on what makes a better glamour bunny.

Curious? Check back this week. Fun stuff in the works.

xoxo,

J Lee

My Fabulous Growing Gift

Aren't yard sales amazing? There is definitely a place in the world for people who inspire to do certain things but never get around to them. That's precisely when us DIY/crafty mavens come in to take all of the junk and unused items and supplies off of your hands at a small price :)

Such is the thing with my big gift. Jalaya walked into the dining room where I was a few weekends ago with a huge box in her arms. She had been yard sale-ing with my mother-in-law as she usually does on Saturday mornings, but this time she came home with a surprise for Mama!

I have to admit I almost thought there was a puppy in that big box for a minute. Then my common sense kicked in.

This is what I found upon opening the box;

FLOWER SEEDS! And lots of them! For every row of seeds you see pictured here, there are 4 more packets under them and all are different types of flowers.

Then, I lifted the Styrofoam containing the seeds to see what was underneath

COLORFUL CERAMIC POTS! OH-MY-GOODNESS. I was in heaven! I almost cried. Jalaya was thrilled beyond belief to be the bearer of my most favorite present all year. There are even little peat pots inside of each container to push the seeds into.

The story is there are 12 pots so you can plant a flower for every month of the year.

Great isn't it? For only 2 DOLLARS!!! You can't beat that price. So I'm thinking of setting up a makeshift greenhouse in my pantry to start the seeds. I don't think most of them will bloom before summer ends though... so maybe I should wait. On the other hand, I have no idea how long this kit marinated on someones shelf before they decided it was best to just sell it... What do you think?

Handsewn Seventies Loveliness

I've decided to jump back into refashioning... it's funny to think that this has caught on so much. I've been doing this since I was a little kid! We never had tons of money, so they only way to get some of the latest things were to make them! However, then, I didn't have a sewing machine, so I was left to my own devices. A needle and thread.

Another thing plunging back into refashioning will help me with is my appearance. I love makeup, doing it, wearing it, mulling over it at the store.. so I'm never really without all of that. This summer's been all about the cutoff's and tee's. Most summer's, I can't be caught in anything but dresses, however, I really haven't had anywhere to wear them! That concerns me too, because before I never needed a reason. I'm slacking. My hair's always piled on top of my head, I haven't cut or colored it in forever!! Fix it?!? Pfffftttt... I'm in need of an overhaul! A glamour intervention! So, I'm going to just put it out there! J Lee is going to STOP being lazy in the beauty area.

But back to the project. There were a bunch of dresses that I had brought home from my grandma's attic. They all look hand sewn, being there's a lack of a tag, and overlocked stitches. I'm finally setting them out to refashion after the few years of procrastinating.

This dress is my favorite. I couldn't seem to capture how vibrant the colors in this fabric are. (Dont mind the messy attic, the weight room's up there, and you're witnessing the aftermath of a girly slumber party I haven't  had the chance to clean up yet)

Actually, I couldn't seem to capture a good photo of this dress all together. One of my photographers was at cheer practice, and Big Al was laying in the air conditioning after a long day at work. So I was left to the attic mirrors


 (that's a white tank I have on under the dress, hopefully before I sew it tomorrow I'll snap a before pic once more, sans the tank)
I wish I knew who made this dress. The stitching is so impressive. The facing is done very professionally,  The patterns are matched up pretty well from front to back also. The only chuckle I got out of the dress was the fact that there is only one pocket sewn in, on the right hand side.

Love these buttons!

So here's the problem. The reason why this dress needs refashioned. It really has no shape. While the buttons are cute, that, combined with the v neck front and back, make it almost impossible to keep on. The fabric has a stiffness to it, or I would have called it a day and worn it as a bikini coverup. That stiff quality would make the dress better suited for shape sewn in. I have a few ideas floating around in my head, but I would love to get some help, What do you guys think?

Check Out the Funky Photo Board!

I finished the picture board for Jalaya's room!!






I changed my mind about the first initial fabric I had laid out for the project.







Plenty of other things I could use that for, I might toss it over to the throw pillow pile, one of the hundreds of to do's...


This is the first original picture board I had done for Jalaya about 5 years ago. It's pathetic I know, it was back when our Wal-mart carried actual bolts of fabric, I got enough of the fabric for both the board and the headboard that I had also covered.





Sorry for the crummy picture quality...they were taken by an even more crummy camera :)




The board actually started out as a regular cork board who lived in my room during my teenage years. The foam stapled to the outside is carpet padding from the rugs we pulled up when we moved in. There was no smell or anything else that would deter me from recycling it. So I used it for the cork board & the headboard as well. AAAnd I still have a bunch of it sealed up in a garbage bag in my basement.





I wanted to do the best I could to make the back of the board look as presentable as the front. The last one I had completed looked a hot mess! I folded the edges of the fabric under before attempting to staple it to the wood on the board.



Nevermind the dirty floor boards, I finished the project on my porch floor, very shabby chic out there ;)




I had a tough time with a batch of staples when I had to reload. They were stubborn and wouldn't push into the wood no matter how much body weight I put on the dang thing. So I spent a whole lot of time snipping them in half with the wire cutter and pulling them out, until I gave up and switched the staples all together. Which is probably what I should've done in the first place. Oh hindsight...



I cut some excess fabric off of the sides to make it easier to fold and staple. The foam was puffy on the opposite sides and the end result would have been bunched up and messy otherwise.



Those corners were a bit tricky to make neat. The staples aren't all flush with eachother but, all in all this was pretty easy to do. Now for the ribbon...





I drew up a quick sketch for how I wanted the ribbons to cross in the front to use as a guide. Then I placed the ribbon, stapled it, and pulled it taut to staple on the other side.



I love it! My little Tween loves it even more! There's a whole lot to do in her room still, being that she wants it painted blue. No more of the hot pink and green, which was the previous decor. She wants a lot of neon colors as well. Soooo, we're one step closer to complete!




Hope you like it! We sure do! Stay tuned for much more in the next few days. This week's packed!!

Jamie Lee

To Pin or Not to Pin...That Is The Question

I'm sure most of you know about Pinterest, but for those of you that don't, it's quickly become one of my loves.

I just love this site! It helps me to keep track of things that I come across and really love without having to bookmark or save the whole site. That, and it also keeps a link to where the photo came from so that I can credit the photographer if I blog it or set a link to facebook.

Another thing I love about this site is the comradery between pinners. I love following others boards and repinning things. You get emails every time someone repins one of yours, then you can go to that persons page and follow them. 9 times out of 10 they will follow you back. It's such a friendly community! The site serves a lot of purpose if you're a blogger, and/or a DIY girl such as myself. It keeps your ideas and inspirations in order. Because, you know us artsy people, we don't have the best records for organization sometimes.

If you would like to check my pins out, go here.

For your enjoyment, here's one of my recent pins:

photo pinned at pinterest
via one of the blogs I frequently visit and love, Style Your Life



Photo can be found in my "Worth Loving" board. Just a bit of light hearted humor to giggle over. Sooo, if you haven't already, definitely head on over to Pinterest, ask for a request to join, and just wait for the impending obsession!

Until the next time....

Jamie Lee

My First Flower Garden, & My Summer Wreath

I'm so very proud of myself for breaking out of my old negative thinking that I had a 'black thumb' as I liked to refer to my lack of plant raising skills. Every woman in my family on both sides could grow a lemon tree in the dead of winter. I realized that my inability to grow things and/or keep them alive was more due to my inattentiveness than my thumbs. So, with the help of my dear Barbie, who bagged up a ton of perennials, and brought them to my house. I started my very first flower garden.






this is the flower bed on the right side of my house (looking up) Salvia lines the front, there are lilies planted behind them behind that is a pot of something that Barbie had brought to me, but, I forgot to ask her what it was, so that is yet to be determined. I'll show some closer photos of it, and if any of you know, don't hesitate to comment. It's a beautiful plant though. On the left side of the little garden I planted 2 different kinds of Hosta, which I discovered this year, are insanely easy to grow. My metal flower is just something I fell in love with at the dollar tree. You can'tbeat that!



This is the plant I was referring to. I love it, I do need to plant it in the ground, but I placed it right in front of the big TREE that's growing on the side of my house. Everything I've planted has run me ragged pulling roots from all of these trees!



This Hosta Plant was given to me by our Uncle Emmett. He gave it to me in one of the cement flower pots you'll see in a few pics down, it took so well when I planted it in the ground. I'm excited it's flowering. I need to fix the mulch issue though :)




This pot is gorgeous! Given to me by Uncle Emmett, Hosta (my favorite kind) is from Barbies garden, and Petunias are from Wal-Mart. There's a matching one on the other side of the front door as well. Oh, and don't mind that bag, it's full of sanding supplies for yet anotherproject I'm working on. Somehow, I didn't even seeit when I was taking the photo. Talk about one track mind.




This little pot of Impatients is just precious. They were given to me by my lovey June (whom we refer to as June-Bug). She's my next door neighbor, I was touched she gave them to me, I think I take extra special good care of them because they're from her.








Here are the Geraniums I had mentioned in my last post. This photo shows all the buds that are about to spring into flowers. I'll take an updated photo today because they are so full now!! I have the rest of the ones that came in the huge pot planted in elsewhere in pots on my cement steps.
There's so much more, I still have the whole other side of the house to show you. Also the Endless Summer Hydrangea that I got at Wal-mart for $7 because it was dying. I'll show you more tomorrow. I do want to show you the summer wreath I have hanging on my door. This is what it looked like before:




I bought this wreath at the thrift store last fall. It had a few gaudy fake flowers on it, and some plastic pumpkins. I took them all off and make a Christmas wreath with glass bulbs, and lights, it was fantastic (however, the photos of the Christmas wreath are missing in action)





I spray painted the wreath an awesome turquoise color (I'll update the brand and the exact color name when I find the can) then I made fabric flowers out of some scraps I had laying around, and a fat quarter of fabric that I bought for 75 cents at Walmart. I hot glued them to the wreath and dug around my stash for the big buttons. Finished it off with that. I hung it on the door, but then I didn't like the hanger for the wreath, it was a faded brass color. So I spray painted it the lime green color you see above, nothing is safe from my spray paint can.
There are so many more projects to share with you..Hope you all have a wonderful evening!

Love,
Jamie Lee

Little Bit of Gardening, & A Sneak Peek

Once again, I've been gone awhile. Allan went out of town for the week, so it was just the kids and I Mon-Fri. While I didn't get a chance to post, I sure did get an awful lot done. Our first adventure was a trip to Lowes to find a few dying flowers we could nurse back to life.

True to form, the kids had a blast. Like I said, everything's an adventure.



Jalaya making a face as I say; 'Jalaya loves Justin Beiber'



The bird bath at Lowes we all collectively fell in love with







The concrete outside was wet from watering the flowers, so the kids took their flip flops off and splashed while we drooled over the beautiful flowers! (Of course, Aidie wanted to splash not pose for any photos)



These orange roses were beyond gorgeous! I've realized that I need them in my backyard.



The kids were so good when we ran our errands that I told them they could both pick a snack in the checkout when we were at Wal-Mart. Aidie happily obliged for a picture of his choice.

AAAAAnd while I took a picture of Aid, Jalaya was already tearing into her candy bar. The remains were in her mouth.

I never actually got around to photographing the huge pot of geraniums that I bought for ONE DOLLAR!! They were looking a bit under-watered and sad, but they had brand new buds forming, and weren't leggy at all, so I snatched those suckers up. I've snapped pics of where I planted them after separating, so that will be in the next garden post. I also bought 2 Jacob's Ladder plants, and a Astible. Those 2 I did photograph and will also be included in the garden post.

I also wanted to let you all know that I'm not telling stories, I actually DID finish mod podging and painting the dresser, but I wasn't happy with the knobs. So, with the help of Big Al, I decided to make new ones, I'm still currently working on them, but I want to give you a sneak peek of the dresser:





And here's a peek at the knob project as well:




So, that's my update. I have a few more completed things that I will be sharing with you in the next few days, I'm thinking of making my love of gardening a weekly segment, what do you think? Lots more coming up, so stay tuned!!

Love you all,

Jamie Lee