Wow, Santa is crafty!

I made it....Big Sis found a cute little canopy bed waiting under the Christmas tree for her new doll.  Never mind that I was up until 2am finishing it and that I almost forgot to wrap it before tucking it under the tree ;-)  And a trip to the store (for pink thread of all things!) on Christmas Eve day was an absolute necessity even after I had really tried hard to plan ahead to avoid such things.



So this is what we started with.  Pretty basic, plain non-girly bedding.

Photo from http://www.ikea.com/

My husband took some long (maybe 2.5 inches or so?) screws and screwed them into the center of each bed post.  He drilled a hole first to make it easier to sink the screws into the wood.  Don't you just *love* that ugly old green tile in our basement laundry room area.  The house we're renting right now was built in 1959 and I think those have to be the original tiles.  I'm sure they're full of terrible cancer-producing chemicals like asbestos etc. 

He then took a piece of PVC pipe that was just about the same diameter as the head of the screws and bent each end down over the screws.  I'm sorry I don't know what size pipe it is.  All I know is that it was $1.49 at Home Depot and by cutting it in half we had enough for both sides of the bed.

This is the end result of Hubby's quick modifications. 

 I then took the bottom platform of the bed and cut some extra quilt batting to fit,

 I had some extra spray adhesive lying around and used it to hold the batting in place. 

 Then I took some extra satin fabric I had and cut a piece a bit larger than the platform and then simply hot-glued the edges down

 The finished look.  You can also see in the below pic that I painted the headboard and footboard white.

I didn't take any pics of the construction of the fabric covering to the canopy.  At midnight on Christmas Eve, I was more focused on actually finishing this project in time for Christmas morning than a step-by-step tutorial, sorry.  But it really was pretty easy.  I took about 1/2 a yard of just plain cotton fabric, rolled and hemmed the edges, and then added the ribbon/eyelet trim on both sides.

I then centered the canopy over the pvc frame and simply hand-stitched in the center and on both ends.  I was going to sew a sort of rod pocket to the underside of the canopy and then slide the pipe through the pocket.  But the later it got and the more I thought about it, a quick stitching to the frame was a better solution.

You'll notice in the above pic that there is a different bedspread than the striped one from IKEA.  I found this one at Target for about $15.  The packaging said it would fit any 18" doll sized bed but it is a tad bit short for this one.  Oh, well.  It has cute cupcakes on it and came with a few little pillows.  I also found some cupcakes stickers at Target and modpodged one on the headboard and a line of three on the footboard.

Overall, I think that it turned out pretty cute and my daughter seems to like it.  And that's all that really matters anyways, right?  Unfortunately, my son likes it too and has desperately tried to climb into it on several occasions.  Now that is a picture I needed to include in this post! ;-)

I'm linking to: Today's Creative Blog - Get Your Craft On

texasmonkey - all-about-you-link-up-party

Keeping it Simple - Motivate-me-monday

http://www.dittledattle.blogspot.com/

http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/

What!?! There are only 4 days left til Christmas?

From the title you can tell how I am feeling about the holidays this year.  I thought I was doing so well.  At one point I even found myself saying, "Wow, we've got a few weeks to go and have just about everything done.  No more running around at the last minute stuff this year."  Ha.  Boy, did I sure ever jinx myself by putting that thought out there in the universe for Murphy to find.

Don't get me wrong, nearly all of our shopping is done except for some gift cards for our nephew and brother-in-law.  Half of the gifts are wrapped.  The other half can wait since we going back to the Midwest to visit family after Christmas.  All of the &*F@*(^&*(#&)$* Christmas cards were mailed out today so that *(&(*% job is done  (Can you tell I'm not a fan of cards ;-) 

Barely stir Christmas caramels and cinnamon pretzels were made this afternoon during naptime and are cooling as I type this.  Tonight I plan on baking the chocolate chip cookies I mixed up last night just before midnight.  And if I can fit in a run to the grocery sometime this evening between supper, baths and bedtime, I just might get a chance to make these oatmeal carmelitas that look especially yummy.  I decided this year I wasn't going to go overboard on the cookie/candy-making.  It just sits around, beckoning to be eaten and to be honest at this point in my pregnancy I don't need any blatant temptations.  (A doc appt this week will tell me if my weight is on track or not)

The one project that is hanging over my head and making me a bit anxious is the doll bed from IKEA that I need to sew a canopy and new bedding for.  Santa is delivering this gift so it HAS to be done by Christmas morning.  It shouldn't take long to put together, just as long as I don't screw up and miscut the fabric I have on hand for it.  I really don't have the time to fit in a trip to JoAnn this week.  I've already painted the headboard and footboard and just have to mod-podge some stickers on it. 

When I see it all written down here, it seems doable. (Is that a word? If not, oh well in my vocabulary it is!)  But there are the variables of 2 little kids' temperments at play here.  And my fellow SAHM will attest, if the kiddos are having a bad day, Mommy doesn't get much done and she has a bad day as well.  Oh yeah, and there is always the laundry, cooking and basic household cleaning that will have to get done between now and Christmas too.

Oh wait.  I just remembered one more thing....the gingerbread house we promised the kids.  Ugh, that might be the one project that puts me over the edge ;-)