DIY Gold Confetti Curtains

I love curtains.

They help make a room.

When I was in the planning stages of my dining room in my head I knew I needed some statement curtains. I looked for a bit online but knew I wouldn't find what I was looking for…

I needed gold curtains and not solid gold curtains.

The gold would tie in with Bryan's grandparents china that his parents had given us.

It is beautiful china and it needs a great curtain to tie to it.

If you are going to make your own curtains I can not suggest enough starting off with Ikea white curtains. Seriously. They are fantastic. They are thick, beautifully done and under $30 for two.

No joke.

All my curtains in my house are Ikea Curtains that I've embellished in some way. Check it.

For the dining room curtains my first thought was of course stripes. I like stripes and stripe curtains are  super doable. I have them in my living room.

Yet, looking around my house… I don't think it needs anymore stripes. Drat.

Then I thought maybe one big accent stripe and I even found fabric and bought it.

But… I just wasn't sold on it… if only there was something new and fresh and fun and…

ooo…. Hello. Gold Confetti. Bet I could put that on a curtain… DING. 
But how...?

I'm not a fan of painting curtains. They say it's way easier but… it doesn't look way easier.
So, when I decided to do gold polka dots I thought of cutting out the dots and fusing them onto my curtains with an iron. Yea… cause that is WAY easier.

I was explaining my plan to my husband and I could see him start to pale.

Hubby: "How many circles would you need?"
Me: "Maybe 200?"
Hubby: "You… want to cut out… 200 little circles and then iron them onto curtains?" 

Well, when you say it out loud… yea it sounds really stupid and horrifyingly time consuming.
That gold fabric is just going to have to sit in my filing cabinet till one day I can do something with it.

I was stuck now. Couldn't make the circles, wasn't a fan of painting them… I was in a pickle.
Until one day I ran across this lady's blog about the best paint for fabric: screen print paint.
It doesn't dry hard. It holds it's color and STAYS IN PLACE.

I gave it a try on some Wifey T-shirts and let's just say… I'm IN LOVE!!

Off to Hobby Lobby where I bought about five bottles of it and now I was ready to go!

Here is what I needed to get started:

• A big flat surface to lay down the curtains.
• The Curtains. I bought 118" Ikea Ritva curtains. I needed 3 panels so I bought 2 packs. 
• Gold paint. I used Simply Screen Print Paint in Gold Dust. 
• A paintbrush
• Something to make my circles. 

For all you mason jar lovers out there, as it so happens the mason jar opening is the perfect circle size. 

Win. 

While I love this paint, it does go through the fabric. No biggie. Just make sure you have something under it. Something as awesome as my put together work space. Yes, those are cardboard boxes and a giant cutting mat. Epic. I know. It works. 

Since they are confetti curtains there is no rhyme or reason to the dots. They aren't perfectly spaced so no measuring is required. I do want them to look cohesive so I put two side by side so the dots would trail off around the same spots.

The best way to do this is to make a bunch of circle outlines then go back with your paintbrush and fill them in. You will use a lot of paint but when you put it down, it stays in place. It never bleeds. 

Seriously amazing. 

Start at the top with more circles. Don't be afraid to overlap. As you head down your curtains just start putting more space between your circles. It's all up to you and how you want it to look. 

That's the best part of it.

Once I finished one I moved it over and started on my next one. 

My husband jumped in and helped me paint the last two since it is a bit time consuming but if you put on some music during nap time and have some eye candy hubs to look at from time to time…

It goes by super fast. :) 

I let them dry over night then my husband hung them up the next day and I promise I heard people singing when they rested in their new home…

Granted, it was my kids singing but it was still epic. 

There you have it! Gold Confetti curtains! 

With the mint and the gold and the awesomeness… Happiness. 

That they are my husband's favorite curtains in the house = happiness x 10. 

Painting curtains is definitely not as hard as I thought. You should give it a try. 

Especially gold confetti ones… super awesome. 

God bless and Much Love,

 Jessica 

Well, aren't you Mint-tastic: Dining Room Reveal

When I find myself in a busy season the first thing I cut out so I can breathe a bit is... the blog.

I don't make any money off of it but it's more of a fun little hobby that I hope can inspire people to know God more, love their hubbys more or maybe pick up a new skill.

When I finished my first craft ages ago in 2010 it was a lame little hair flower. 

It was. We don't have to be nice about it. But… I made it. Even though it wasn't super easy and needed a lot of work that was the fun part of it! Learning and growing.

So, if you read my blog and it inspires you to even try a new coffee flavor (which I have no idea how you got that idea from reading this blog but I digress…) or kidnap your husband for a date (that seems more likely) that's exciting! 

Because if you have read anything of mine you know that if I can do it… ANYONE can at least attempt it! 

While I haven't had much going on these past few months since I spent the first trimester napping and trying to eat… I have kind of gotten off the couch the last two weeks and made a few signs but I have been neglectful in showing you projects I have completed. 

So, in honor of the fact that I am hosting my first ever Family Holiday for my side of the family this coming Sunday I thought I'd show off a little bit of work that I completed. 

Now, I've hosted my husband's family for Easter and Christmas but this is my Mom and Sister. 

I have some big shoes to fill to follow in my crazy amazing Mom's footsteps. 

Hopefully this dinning room will help -- 

If you've seen my Facebook or previous posts I've mentioned the elusive "Dining Room" with the Mint walls and gold polka dot curtains… I've had this room in my mind for months. 

Yet, this mint color…

I'm not going to lie to you…. took forever and it wasn't fun. 

Colors are sometimes not our friend. They aren't. We have a color in our mind, we go to the paint store and is that color there in the exact perfect shade?

Uh no. 

I looked for this Mint color for six months. 

Six. Months. 

For a color… I mean really. 

I tried them on a board first so I wouldn't have paint splotches on my wall for months.

After I ran out of board… I just went to the wall anyway. 

Look at all those color variations…. 

After buying every Mint color I could find (12 different samples) I started mixing my own.

There were two colors I liked but one was too dark and the other too light…

Bleh…

But eventually we found it. 

It was Mint-Tastic and when I painted my dark gray next to it in the entryway it made it shine even more. 

Bryan and I had gone back and forth about painting the entire entryway/dining room Mint. 

Yet, Bryan hates mint. I mean the poor man really does not like that color. He has dragged his feet the entire time I've wanted to paint that room Mint and when I finally gave up and was like, "Ok we will paint it gray," since the man wants EVERY ROOM gray… 

He said no. I wanted Mint. It should be Mint and that he would just close his eyes when he walked past it. It's so sad and so romantic all at the same time… I seriously love that man and I do not deserve him.

But I'll keep him forever. 

So, it got painted mint! 

Now while Bryan may hate the color… he loves my Gold Polka Dot Curtains… that I will share tomorrow! 

God bless and Much Love,

 Jessica 

Hey there Baby Mac #3.

I'm pretty convinced I have heard God's laughter over the years.

He must not be able to help it around me because many of the things I say or think...

The only response He could have besides striking me dead is full out laughter.

Like the time I told him I wasn't the marrying type and was going to be one of those career girls.
That was the first time I thought I heard it. Right before I met my husband after my parents forced me on a singles retreat for my church...

Or the time I told Bryan that I'd never move out of New Orleans and I would never in a million years move to Texas.

See?

I've caused God at least two huge bouts of laughter and that isn't even counting the daily things I do each day.

Recently though I really have heard God's laughter and I recognized it wasn't mocking or a "See, I'm God and you are Not" but a rather, "Oh sweet daughter... you seriously have no clue what is best for you do you?"

Though granted, He has the right to pull the I'm God and you are not card.

His sweet laughter came when I saw two super clear purple lines on a pregnancy test.

I am not really a life planner.
Once Bryan asked me what my five year plan had been when I went to college.
I'm pretty sure I just stared at him stupidly for a few minutes.

I've never really planned out my life. I've planned out projects, vacations, and dates but serious life things like marriage, career… never was all that prepared.

But I wanted to be with kids so after Elliot we made a plan.

Four kids sounded good. Two close together then a three year gap and two more close together so they wouldn't be lonely. I was a lot younger than my siblings so I wasn't crazy when I had my boys 18 months apart… I was being thoughtful in giving them a playmate.

After Ethan came along we really liked our three year gap plan.

Having two children, moving to a new state, switching jobs, joining a new church and having a house to figure out was a bit much to handle.

But I was still planning ahead for those next two kids… just WAY WAY ahead.

In fact I thought adoption was what was next for us.

I'd talk about it frequently with Bryan who would just nod and remind me calmly that we aren't going to adopt anytime soon or have another child anytime soon either. OK… but did it hurt to talk about it and plant the seed? Nope.

I'd told my friends, they had started to pray for clarity for me and I was looking into the Texas Adoption service. I was super crazy excited.

Then I saw those two purple lines.

Two completely unexpected purple lines.

How did this happen? Ok... I knew how it happened but HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!

Two days before my purple line revelation I had been speaking to a very close friend of mine who was telling me she was having her second child. I was so excited and so happy I joked with them that I was so glad it was them and not me.

See.... now you are laughing along with God.

I had to call her back a few days later and tell her we'd be having kids a few days apart from each other.
She thought it was hilarious.

I struggled for a few weeks with this new and beautiful revelation.

Did this mean we weren't going to ever adopt? What if it was twins?
Then for SURE we wouldn't adopt…

I was confused and shaken.

Because my plans sounded great. I mean, they did.

And this baby was not in my plans.

I kind of felt like a whiny four year old.

BUT GOD…. that wasn't the PLAN!!

I felt out of control and I quickly realized I did not like that feeling.
When had I become such a control freak?

Bryan wasn't taking it as bad… he kind of wasn't taking it at all.

Two weeks in he finally was like, "You should take another pregnancy test."

I prevented myself from explaining the female anatomy to him and complied.
Two Purple lines.

It took him another three weeks to admit we were having another baby.

That's about how long it took me to realize that I wasn't in control and that… was a great thing.

Every amazing thing in my life that has happened was never something I planned or shot for.

It had all been carefully and lovingly orchestrated by God.

Just like Baby Mac #3. God wasn't surprised. He's never surprised.

But He is gracious when we are surprised. When we are scared and when we are in flat out denial.

Isaiah 30:18

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

We are about to finish the 1st trimester now and could not be more excited. Our excitement finally matches our friends and family as they try and convince me I am having a girl when let's face it… there be another McCarty Boy in there.

Either way, I have all my 'E' names planned and whoever pops out Bryan and I are ready to love to pieces. Baby Mac #3 is special and precious to us and it will be a long six months waiting for him.

I'm not sure what my plan will be now… will there be a Baby Mac #4? Will we adopt?

No idea.

But God knows and I can wait on Him and just enjoy this moment.

Cause this moment… is fantastic.

God Bless and Much Love,

 Jessica 

Oh and if you were curious to know how we found out about Baby Mac #3, keep on reading…

Bryan was on a business trip to New Orleans and I had called him to say goodnight. We were talking for a few minutes when I realized in my head that my period hadn't come recently… no biggie. The fastest way to start a period is to take a pregnancy test. I always have a plethora of them on hand cause I buy them from the dollar general. Work perfectly. Dollar preggo tests have found out all of my three kids. True. 
While he was telling me about his day that first purple line appeared… and then… the next and then…  I screamed.
"OH SH**!" 
(Yep. I did. I'm a sinner and I was panicking. Back off)
He thought I had broken something. 
"What? What is it? Are you ok?!" 
"NO! I'm not ok!" 
I started at this point to hysterically cry. I swear I am such an adult… Then we went back and forth, him lovingly trying to convince me to tell him what was wrong, me not wanting to tell him cause it wasn't very special to scream, cry hysterically and then, "Oh we are having a baby!" 
See… God laughs at me ALL the time people! 
Eventually I blurted it out.
"I'm pregnant."
"… what?" 

Yep. It wasn't my shining moment but as time passes it becomes funnier and funnier and I am so thankful for all the laughter God allows in our house. 

DIY Screen Print Wifey Shirt

Do you have a friend that has impeccable taste in everything from clothes to food?

I have three. 

One of them even has her own blog about that awesome taste of hers.
It's called Style me Southern and you should check her out. She's adorable.

I follow her on instagram and one day she posted a picture of this shirt that
I HAD TO HAVE!!

It was from Ily Couture

I was a wife and LOVE letting people know how much I enjoy being a wife...

This was MADE for me.

So, I went to the shop but I wasn't quite ready to splurdge that much...
Even though I know it's probably the best quality and amazing.

I figured I could probably do it myself though and if I couldn't... I had a backup to buy it.

So what was the harm?

I ran out and got some Vintage Tee's from Old Navy and some Simply Screen Print paint.

This is my new paint. I've bought a bunch of it and this was my first time trying it.

   

I've only found it at Hobby Lobby so don't bother with Jo-Ann's or Micheal's, they aren't fan's of it.

A lady at The Creativity Exchange said this was the BEST paint to use on fabrics because it didn't bleed and it had the richest hughes. She's been crafting for like 30 years so I figure she knows her stuff.

I'm going to use it to make my gold confetti curtains this week but it seemed wise to test it out on a
t-shirt first.

So, I started with a design I did quickly in Microsoft Word.

wifey

I used the font KG Hard Candy. You can download it for free here.

I had done a test print on regular paper first to make sure the Wifey was the size I wanted on my shirt.

Then I found my freezer paper and this is where I had to get creative.

You want to print on the NON SHINY side of the paper. The shiny side is the wax you will use to stick your design to the t-shirt with an iron.

Normally since freezer paper is all curled up it curls so it won't go straight into your printer.
Now to fix this you would just spray glue it to a piece of paper.

That was not a good option since I wanted to iron the paper onto my shirt later so I didn't want to ruin the waxy side with glue.

I took one edge of the freezer paper and put a strip of glue from a glue stick on one side and stuck it to a regular piece of paper. Then I ran that side first through my printer.

Worked like a charm and it didn't ruin the entire paper. I could just cut that edge off.

I pulled out one of my new Christmas presents from the BEST HUBBY EVER.
Sigh... I love that man. So sexy and so amazing...

Sorry... was distracted.

Anyway, I pulled out my Xacto Knife Box. It has like more Xacto knife sizes and blades then I will need in a lifetime. It's super dangerous too... I cut my finger open the first day having it. Lame...

I had an old cutting board and went to town.

I kept all the hole cut outs from the swirl in the w to the f, e and y since I'm going to use those still.
You can add these to your shirt with an iron so you won't have to guess about where to paint around.

I set my iron to cotton blend and put the shirt on a cheap t-shirt cardboard cut out that I got for $1 at Hobby Lobby. I taped the shirt to it to make sure the fabric was tight. I didn't go super tight since the shirt was stretchy and I didn't want it to be oddly stretched on the front of the shirt and look wonky.

I ironed on my cut out and made sure it was on their tight, running the iron over it multiple times to make sure.

The Awesome thing about this screen print paint is that it doesn't bleed.

No, seriously... it doesn't bleed. It's pretty epic.

I did a few coats of the gold paint till I got it to a color I liked.

Then I waited for it to dry.

A whopping ADD Crafter 5 minutes.

Super hard five minutes...  I even took a blow dryer to it to speed it up.

I peeled off the cut out and

BOOM!!!

Wifey shirt.

Love. Love. Love.

Loved it so much I made another one in white. The gold one is for a friend's Birthday. Shh... she doesn't know. I mean... she probably will figure it out reading this though... drat.

Not too bad for less then $10 and about a half hour of my time.

Win.

I tried to model it like Megan does in all her cute selfies...

Yea, I'll leave that stuff to the professionals.

Supplies Needed:
- Design
 - Printer with paper
- Freezer Paper
- Glue Stick
- X-acto Knife
- Cutting Board
- Iron & Ironing Board
- Cardboard
- T-shirt
- Screen Print Paint
- Paintbrush

Let me know if you have any questions and feel free to Pin it all over Pinterest.

Many Wifey's be needing this shirt y'all.

God bless and Much Love,

 Jessica 

Simple Valentine Mantle & Easy Valentine Ideas

Seems rare that I decorate BEFORE a holiday...

But it happened:

And majority of that stuff I already had. I picked up some photo frames lying in my photo frame bone yard upstairs (What is that you ask? It's every photo frame I've bought or had over the years shoved into one corner upstairs until I can figure out where to put them... nice huh?)

Some were old and I just kept the photo in them and it made a pretty cool time capsule of our entire relationship. 

The Pom Pom Garland is my favorite.

I bought this giant bag of poms, dumped them out on the living room floor and let the boys go at it while I strung whichever ones they threw at me with a needle and some baker's twine.

Talk about a craft Win Win.

Now enough about Mantles...

Let's talk about Love.

Time to get talking about how you'd like to knock your spouses socks off this holiday season. 

I'm a big fan of the hilarious Valentine card: 

It's still not too late to do the 14 Days of Valentine's theme!

One of my favorites was getting a set of nerf guns, building a fort and having an all out war. 

This year I can't tell you what I'm doing because he reads my blog...

Which I always feel super loved that he does cause I know how boring these things can be. :)

But sometimes just the small effort of a card or a homemade breakfast is just what a hubby needs to let him know that we are always thinking about them.

Valentine's day doesn't have to be extravagant.

You and your hubby not really into the pagen holiday because everyday is Valentine's day?
Find a couple with young kids and offer to babysit for them!

Have a bunch of single friends who hate the holiday? Throw them a red and pink bash at your house.

Valentine's Day is just another reason for us to love on one another.

Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

It's the greatest commandment for a reason.

Spread the love this February! Whether it be wishing a stranger a great day, telling someone how sexy your hubby is (this always makes people laugh) loving on your Man or loving on others...

Don't waste a minute of what God has blessed you with.

God bless and Much Love,

 Jessica