Sewing / Craft Table Tutorial Using a Hollow Door!

So, my wonderful hubby suprised me with brand spankin'new sewing AND embroidery machines!

 
WOW I was super stoked...until I realized I have to learn how to use them, buy supplies in order to use them...and I need a place to put all of this stuff!! And the wheels start turning...I remembered seeing a tutorial somewhere on Pinterest about turning an old door into a table. So after researching the price of sewing tables, I decided to do that!

Supplies:

1 Hollow 30x80 in. door from Lowes or Home Depot
1 wire basket organizer from IKEA
2 table legs from IKEA
2 1/2 yds of fabric
Staple Gun
Duct Tape
Drill

 First, my hubby and I made a trip to Lowes for a hollow door. I didn't get a photo of this but they are super cheap at $27 per door. The door measures 30in. x 80in.

Second was the idea of adding the legs to the table, I looked at the legs at Lowes but they were pretty expensive, the size I needed were about $22/leg...no thank you!! I had an idea of maybe adding a nightstand or an organizer underneath for extra storage space so we went to Target to look...needless to say Target is very proud of their organizers and night stands...then it came to me...IKEA!!!
Soo off to IKEA we went...I found some pretty cool adjustable legs for the table that measure up to 27 1/2 in. and they come in assorted colors so I got PINK! At only $3.50 a pop these were a huge money saver for me... I got two of these.

Next was the organizer...I found this wire basket organizer near the check outs at IKEA and loved it...you can add fabric over the baskets if you want to put things in there that would fall through the holes...that's a project for a later date...



Now the whole organizer was $37.00 but since this is IKEA and it comes in pieces, and we didn't need the top piece since the table would be laying on top, it was only $14.99 for the metal frame and $3.75 per wire basket bringing it to a total of $27.99! Wahoo! And magically the frame measures exactly 27 1/2 inches without the top part which is exactly what the table legs were! It was meant to be!




Now I'll admit my husband did about 99% of this project and he screwed in the table legs while I was shopping for fabric to go on top of my table...which this is what I found and I loved it! You will need about 2 1/2 yds for this size door. I went ahead and got 3 yards so I can have some extra for other projects. It cost me about $15.00 before tax with my JoAnns coupon!

Once you have all your supplies together, just wrap the fabric around the table and staple with a staple gun and pull the fabric tight to prevent bunching. My husband and I wound up putting the table on its side at one point to fix the bunching.

 

 





Once finished stapling, finish with duct tape and set on top of organizer and voila!! There you have it!

 

Love it!!!

 

 

Price Breakdown:

 

Door- $27.00
Fabric- $15.10

Organizer- $27.99

Table Legs- $$3.50 x 2 = $7.00

 

Total (without tax): $77.09

Total (with TX sales tax): $83.45

 

The optional piece which I did not include because a lot of people have this already is the computer chair I also got at IKEA for $49.99. Still a super cheap project!!

 

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Photo Coasters!!

Okay, so I'm a Pinterest addict (who isn't). I was on the beloved website one day when I found Fabric Envy's photo tile tutorial. The heaven's aligned and I could hear the angels singing MOTHER'S DAY! WAHOOO! My Mom is a huge photo junkie, always taking photos of flowers, animals, other people's children, seriously if you see a creepy lady in the corner with a camera it's my Mom! Love you Mom!!

Anyways, I thought this would be PERFECT for her since this is a total new way to give photo presents THANK GOD for Modge Podge!! I decided I wanted to make photo coasters with 4x4 ceramic tiles as well as the 6x6 larger photo tile which I decided to use a photo of the night my Mom got engaged! So sweet!

**And yes, I used my son's Lego table for this since I sold my kitchen table on Craigslist and the new one is in our new house we are trying to move into** LOL

What you need for the coasters:

 4 or 5 - 4x4 ceramic tiles (I got for about $1 a piece at Home Depot)

Matte Photo Paper (if you are printing the photos yourself)

Modge Podge

Foam or normal paint brushes

Exacto knife 

Super sliders (I bought at Wal Mart) to keep the back of the tile from scratching the table

Scissors

As Fabric Envy taught me on her blog, you cannot use glossy photo paper for this project because the photos will smear, you must have a matte photo.I wound up printing the photos for the coasters myself since I couldn't find a single place that could print a 4x4 matte photo! I heard Costco is great for this stuff but I don't have a membership so I just purchased some matte photo paper from Wal Mart and used my HP Photosmart printer and it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!!! 

I did not take step by step photos, but it's super easy....

1. Paint a thin layer of Modge Podge on the tile

2. Center your 4x4 photo on the tile (my coasters had about 1/4 in.of tile showing all around which I liked better than what I did with the larger tile because it bubbled less.

3. Let it dry 10 minutes or so

4. Apply thin layer of Modge Podge on top of the photo (do not worry it will dry clear)

5. Let dry 20 minutes (if you have bubbling occur, just work it out WHILE IT'S WET with your fingers and lightly paint over it to blend so there aren't finger prints on the photo)

6. I repeated this 2 more times (3 total coats) on top of the photo just to make sure that the photo is actually sealed since I'm sure they will be getting wet with cups being placed on them. 

7. Once it is dry just stick the rubber bumpers on the back and you're done! Wahoo!

I think they turned out great!!

Valentine's Dinner Idea for the Kiddos

So this year my husband has a meeting on Valentines Day. Altough we were planning on celebrating on Friday so that there will be babysitters available to watch our three kids (or as my husband refers to them "our litter") I wanted to make sure that the kids got into the V-Day spirit. Since it's just us for dinner, I decided to make it fun!

On the menu is a heart shaped crock pot meatloaf, heart shaped squash and zucchini, and heart shaped mini red velvet cakes with vanilla icing and red sprinkles. I got the meatloaf recipe from Recipe Vegetables. Instead of cooking it in the oven, I decided to make it into a heart shape and cook it in the slow cooker on high for about 4-5 hours just so it can cook throughout the day while I did housework and prepared the other things. You can also cook it on low for 8-9 hours.

I also found a fun way to get my little ones to eat their vegetables. I got a set of 6 heart shaped cookie cutters at my local grocery store and had the brilliant idea of cutting out heart shaped zucchini and squash! I wrapped these in foil and set the oven to 400 degrees and cooked them about 30 minutes. You can cook them less time if you like them more al dente. I seasoned them with butter, oregano, salt, and pepper. I cooked the hearts and the outer layers as well so I didn't waste anything!

This last idea will probably work out better for those of you who know how to bake (NOT I). All I did was go to the store and buy a box of red velvet cake and baked it in a 13 x 9 in. pan for about 40 mins. Once the cake was cooled I used a heart shaped metal pancake shaper thing (I have no idea what it's really called lol) and cut out 4 mini heart cakes from the larger cake. I topped it with white vanilla icing (couldn't find pink!) and red sprinkles. I'm sure even though they aren't perfect, the kids will still love them.

I hope I sparked some ideas for all you mommas out there!

P.F. Chang's FREE Lettuce wraps July 6-31st!

P.F. Chang's is doing a Facebook promotion for a free order of Lettuce Wraps with the purchase of dinner or a drink from July 6-31st! Click here for the direct link to print your coupon!! 

Chilis FREE Kid's Meal Coupon!

Chilis is sending out emails this week for a FREE kids meal on May 10th! Enjoy!!

Chili's Free Queso Coupon!

I am always on the lookout for coupons for eating out. My husband loves to eat at home, and if he had it his way we'd never get to eat out! :) To make things a little more tempting, I find good coupons or deals going on in our area so that he just can't say no! Well, now that I'm pregnant I think he's afraid to say no regardless :). Anyways, Chili's has a deal going on right now that if you sign up for their email club you will instantly receive a printable coupon for a free chips and queso! That's a pretty good deal!! Enjoy!

Easter is around the corner!

When shopping around for my step daughter for Easter dresses, I first went to Kohl's. I normally find amazing deals there and I am an avid Kohl's fan and will always be, however, I am also a believer of shopping around to make sure you are getting the best price! I found that the easter dresses for girls at Kohl's were around $60! YIKES! They do run sales but this was a lot more than I had expected! I looked around at JC Penney's and I fell in LOVE with their little girl's dresses. They had a sale of 40% off all dresses so I had to jump on it! I wound up getting her two, one for $32 and the other for $25! MUCH better! I found this coupon to share if any other penny pinching momma's want to get in on the action ;) This 15% off JCPenny coupon expires on 04/05/11!

Please leave me feedback and let me know whether this worked for you or not, I will remove anything that is found not to work! But so far so good!