Outdoor Toy Organization

We have been working on a patio makeover for the last few weeks. One thing that I knew needed to be worked into the new design was better storage of the kids' outside toys. We have a big plastic patio box that previously held all their toys, and while it is convenient to just toss everything into the box, all of the smaller toys seem to constantly get lost at the bottom. So when my mom gave me this {used to be ugly and brown} shelf, I set out to find some kind of container that could withstand the outside elements and three boys!

 After three separate shopping trips to about 10 different stores, I finally found exactly what I was looking for at a small hardware store about 20 miles north of me. I bought 6 galvanized steel buckets at $6 each, then came home and got busy with my Silhouette. I cut out some fun oval shaped labels to correspond with all the little toys that were in the boys' outside toy collection. Now instead of digging in the big patio box for their sand toys, they can take the sand toys bucket off the shelf and head over to the sand box to play:)

 For a decorative touch above the shelf, I added an old window that I embellished with some bright and cheery yellow chevron fabric. I still think it needs a little something, and I really want to add a vinyl quote or saying....I just don't know what just yet!

I am in the process of turning the old plastic patio box into an outdoor bench, and when that is complete the patio will finally be finished and I will share it with you. In the mean time, if anybody has any ideas or suggestions of what I can add to the old window please share them!

Go HERE to see the completed patio makeover.

Monogrammed Flag Tees

If you have been reading my blog for long, you already know that I have a love of homemade holiday shirts. Check out the evidence here, here, here, here, and here:) The 4th of July is actually one of my favorite holidays to make shirts for because after the 4th the shirts can still be worn without looking silly {like you would if you wore a Christmas shirt in the middle of March}! Last year my boys had cute {but sort of plain} gingham flag shirts, so this year I decided to make their shirts a little more interesting!

I started by using my Silhouette to cut out the first letter of each kiddos name in a wide letter as similar to the shape of the US flag as I could.

I picked up 1/4 yard of red striped fabric and 1/4 yard of solid blue fabric at the store {this was more than enough for me to make 3 kids' shirts}. I used the outline of the letter that I cut out with my Silhouette to help me line up the fabrics to look like a flag. The red and white striped should cover most of the letter and the solid blue should be in the top left corner of the letter.

You could simply cut out your letter by hand using the outline as a guide, but I decided to try out the fabric interfacing that I bought when I got my Silhouette. I ironed on the interfacing according to the directions, lined my material up on my cutting mat using my paper letter as a guide, and then I let my Silhouette do the work of cutting out the letter. Can I just say the fact that this machine can easily cut fabric makes it work it's weight in gold to me:)

Now that the hard part is over, the last step in making your monogrammed flag tees is to iron on your letter and then sew it in place. If you don't sew, you could easily buy the heavy duty iron on and skip the sewing step altogether.

Two of my models are going to VBS this week, so my littlest photography assistant helped me out with my photo shoot:)

Do you show your patriotism by wearing a red, white, and blue on the 4th of July?

Project Airstream

Last week I shared a little sneak peek of our newest project with you....and apparently it is hard to disguise a 29 foot travel trailer in photos because every single person knew what our new project was:) We did in fact get a new travel trailer, except the word new needs to be used very loosely here because our new travel trailer is actually older than both Jason and myself! We are now the proud owners of a Vintage Airstream {fyi did you know that vintage means that it is more than 25 years old}!

 After looking at a few other Airstreams and comparing prices, we decided to go on a little trip to see this beauty! When we got there, we were just a little bit excited about what we saw! Not only was this travel trailer the perfect set up for us, but it was also in REALLY great condition considering it was made in 1977! The guy we bought it from was a really cool guy who had intended to make a cabin in the woods out of this Airstream....but he just never got around to it. So our lovely travel trailer had been sitting on his property untouched for the last 5 years. The previous owners had obviously taken good care of it because when we started testing out all the systems everything seemed to work!

 The outside is in really good condition with only a few minor dents....though it is going to take quite a while to restore the shine to this beauty.

The inside is full on vintage 70's!

awesome sort of pink carpet

wood paneling everywhere

yellow and green flowery wallpaper

and some ugly curtains that seem to wrap around forever!

Luckily for us, most of the interior is easy to remedy with just a little bit of elbow grease. Actually Jason has already taken out the carpet and removed almost all of the curtains. After we finish demo-ing, we are planning on saying bye bye to all the dark wood by coating everything with a coat of light colored paint...plus a few dozen other upgrades that need to be made to make this travel trailer road worthy:

bunk beds will be built

new appliances will go in

laminate floors will recover the sub-floors

and fun new fabric will cover the fold out couch

Needless to say we are going to be busy with this project for quite a while! Our plan is to work on it for the next few months with the hopes of finishing up by next summer. Jason has always wanted to take the boys to the Grand Canyon, and camping with a bunch of boys seems almost perfect!

I will share more as we continue with this fun new project. We are complete newbies to the whole travel trailer and camping thing, so all advice and suggestions are welcomed:)