solutions Archives - Tatertots and Jello

StayMade — Super Smart Kids Bedding!

Jen — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 08:16:32 +0000

Sometimes I come across an idea that is so cool, I just need to share it! Have you ever heard of Kickstarter? It’s a site that let’s people take their ideas and turn them into products that people can use! Right now there is a cool invention on Kickstarter called StayMade. StayMade is a cute, smart solution for kids bedding.

This post is sponsored by StyleMade. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ella sleeps in a bunk bed and it is so hard for her to keep her bedding neat and tidy up there. Plus, it’s difficult to tuck her sheet and blankets in on the bunkbed that she kicks them off in the Winter and then gets cold during the night. We’ve tried everything.

So I was so excited to hear about StayMade. It’s a set of comfortable and high quality bedding pieces that are connected and kept together with a patented structure of zippers. There’s a fitted sheet, a top sheet and a comforter. And they are easy to zip and unzip for kids. Plus, there’s also a peapod layer that’s waterproof for potty-training accidents.

It’s easy to take on and off too.

You can customize the colors and mix and match patterns. I love that StayMade used Pantone colorsfor their bedding sets. I’m trying to decide which one Ella would love the most!!

StayMade is getting so close to their Kickstarter goal, which is the minimum amount they need to order enough product to get an affordable price on manufacturing. And they have a great deal right now on kickstarter for the bedding sets.

I just love hearing about people who are thinking of creative ideas and making them happen!

You can find out more about StayMade here:

StayMade Website

StayMade KickStarter Website

StayMade YouTube Video

StayMade on Facebook

StayMade on Twitter

StayMade on YouTube

Have a Creative Day!!

xoxo

This post was sponsored by StayMade as part of the Mom it Forward Blogger Network.

I only feature companies that I believe in and that I think my readers will enjoy. See my disclosures.

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Great Ideas — 17 DIY Decorating Solutions {5}

Jen — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 06:20:41 +0000

Happy Fall or Winter? What is the weather doing in your area ? It is currently SNOWING where I live! Well, if you are like me when the weather changes you will want to grab your favorite blanket, cuddle up next to the fireplace and read your book or blog posts. And while you’re at it — check out these great DIY Decorating ideas!

Reclaimed Wood Wall Art @ Shanty 2 Chic

Gaping Hole to Built-Ins @ Vintage Revivals

Anthropologie Knock Off @ Blue Cedar

Barn Style Wainscoting @ Imperfectly Polished

Dry Sink @ Renewed Upon a Dream

Baby Girl to Big Girl @ The Three Sweet Peas

Bushel and a Peck @ My Repurposed Life

Rubbled Ribbon Dust Ruffle @ Burlap & Denim

White Chairs @ Creative Cain Cabin

Plaid Pattern Burlap Coaster @ Whisper Wood Cottage

Frosted Address Door @ Josie Jones & Company

Walmart Saddle Stool @ The Rooster and the Hen

Antique Waterfall Bed @ Infarrantly Creative

Globe Lights @ Josie Jones

DIY Headboard @ Brown Paper Packages

Locker @ Sweet Girl Expressions

Gift Wrapping Station @ Two Shades of pink

Don’t forget about the great giveaway from the The Ribbon Retreat!!

It is the place to go for cute ribbon!

Perfect for projects!!

Plus they carry trims too!

Like this giant ric rac!!

And tons of great fabrics!

And they also have a FAB blog — The Ribbon Retreat with great projects ideas for ribbon and fabric, like this zipper headband and necklace tutorial.

***

The Ribbon Retreat is giving away a
$50 gift certificate – you can use on anything at their site.

Come link up YOUR ideas!

Have a Happy Saturday!!

xoxo

PS — Another Great Ideas post coming up later tonight!!

The post Great Ideas — 17 DIY Decorating Solutions {5} appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.

My Decorating Dilemma Solution — Desk Area Makeover

Jen — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:19:00 +0000

I participated in Amanda @ Serenity Now‘s Decorating Dilemma party a couple of months ago. I shared a terrible eyesore in my kitchen.

My kitchen desk which is a haven for everything that comes in the house. My kids love to dump their papers, food, shoes, and whatever else they can find on that space. It also is where the builders of the house built in a huge intercom gadget smack in the middle of the wall, plus a zillion wall outlets. Let’s just say — it’s not a pretty corner to do any work. I saw a post that Pam did a Bibbity Boppity Beautiful where she put a shelf on the wall to store her electronic gadgets and I thought it was such a great idea. Well, the shelf I bought started dropping immediately after I installed it and all of the gadgets slid off onto the desk. I pretty much gave up on the space after that and I even left the metal strip from the shelf.

Part 1: The Chair

About the same time as this was happening I was driving down the street in my neighborhood and came upon this beauty. She is pretty awful. Someone put her out to the curb in the rain! Well, I picked her up and thought I might be able to give her a new life for my desk.

This was the catalyst that started my desk transformation. {Bear with me — this post might be a tad long — this is actually three projects in one post.}

It started with the chair. I brought her home, sanded her off and took off the hideous Brady Bunch upholstery. Then I painted her using DecoArt’s Americana black paint.I used a bristle brush to get in all the nooks and crannies.

I also decided to add some scallop molding to take a little of the gothic element out of the chair and add a little more cottage-y feel. I used Gorilla’s Wood Glue and then clamped it until the glue dried.

And when I was done, I used Rockler’s Deft Finishing Spray to give it a slight sheen and to protect the surface.

I picked out three fabrics that I liked for the seat, the back and the other side of the chair. Then I recovered the seat.

I took off the old hideous material and added an extra layer of batting. I used my staple gun and stapled one side, then pulled the material taut and stapled the opposite side. And did the same with the other three sides. I folded the material down before I stapled it so that it was extra secure.

Then I upholstered the back of the seat. I measured the area and cut out a piece of material the same size. Then I got out my trusty staple gun and stapled the material onto the back. When I was done, I used a mallet and pounded the staples in so that none of them were sticking out. Then I covered the staples with coordinating ribbon. I hot glued the ribbon over the staples.

Part 2: The Bulletin Board

The second part of the project was making something to cover up the wall area over the desk. I measured the area and found a picture at a garage sale for $1 that was about the right size.

I took the picture out of the frame and hot glued a piece of metal sheeting from a roll that I found at Home Depot’s Roofing Department. Then I painted the frame using the same black DecoArt Americana Paint. Once it was dry, I sprayed it with the Rockler’s Deft Wood Spray to give it a sturdy finish and a bit of a sheen.

Then I took some burlap material and cut out a piece of material that was the same size as the picture plus 4 inches on each side.

I wanted to make it cute, and one of the newest sponsor’s of the DIY Club is an adorable etsy shop called Olive Rue. I downloaded this image of a chair with a bird on it from Olive Rue and printed it on transfer paper {you must reverse out the image to do it on this type of paper}. Then I ironed it onto the burlap. I peeled off the backing and voila – an instanly cute focal point for my Burlap Magnet Board! I covered the metal sheeting with the burlap and flipped it over. I used Gorilla Glue Tape to secure the edges of the board. This tape is incredibly sturdy and sticky! Perfect for this project. Then I fit the magnet board inside of the frame and used my staple gun to attach it on the back.

Part 3: The Magnets

The Third Part of the Project — was making some cute magnets to tie the chair material with the magnet board. I took some scraps of material left over from the chair redo and cut them into 2 inch wide sections and folded the pieces in half.

I made a tie at one end of the material. Then I put a dab of hot glue on the knot and then wrapped the material around the knot, twisting it as I went.

I kept adding hot glue every half turn and did this until I got to the end of the material.

Then I added a second color of fabric and started it where the last fabric left off — also twisting it around until I got to the end.

Then I cut out a burlap circle as big as the flower I just made and hot glued the circle onto the bottom of the flower. Once it cooled off, I added a magnet. And I had a cute magnet that coordinated with the chair! I made three for the board.

And that is my answer to my decorating dilemma! A nice, colorful place in my kitchen with a magnet board where I can keep important to-do items! And I can move the magnet board to the side when I need to get into the intercom or outlets.

Here are the DIY Club Sponsor’s products that I used:

Gorilla Glue — Wood Glue

Gorilla Glue — Tape

DecoArt — Americana Black Paint

Rockler — Deft clear Wood Finish

Olive Rue — Bird on a Chair Digital Download**

** Olive Rue is offering a special discount for DIY Club Readers — If you mention you are coming from the DIY Club, they will send you a free image.And, if you go over to Olive Rue’s blog www.oliverue.blogspot.com — there is a special there where you can download an image for free.

XOXO

www.tatertotsandjello.com

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Dinner Dilemmas Solution: Meal Planning Magnets with free PDF

Jen — Sun, 30 May 2010 23:11:00 +0000

It’s Sunday and time for Dinner Dilemmas. Today I am so excited to introduce you to Amy from The Red Chair Blog. Amy is a decorator, organizer, wife, and mom who lives in Cary, NC. She also owns and operates Red Chair Home Interior and gives great tips to help you turn your house into a home. She is so very talented. You might recognize this fabulous project that she shared in February:

Okay — take it away Amy!!!

Greetings, Tatertots & Jello readers! I’m a huge fan of Jen and her incredibly creative project ideas, so I’m thrilled to be a guest here today to share a project with you as part of her series on Dinner Dilemmas.

“What’s for Dinner?” If these three little words strike terror in your heart, why not find a fun way to answer that question for yourself and your family? Today I’m going to show you how to turn junk mail magnets into a cute set of meal planning magnets.

I designed this project to be simple and affordable. I’ve even provided a free printable PDF for you. As an added bonus, you’ll keep all of those junk mail magnets out of the landfill!

Materials:

Junk mail magnets (the best are those awful giant magnets from personal injury lawyers that are always glued to the back cover of the phone book, but any flat magnets will do: pizza delivery, dentists’ offices, credit card solicitations, etc.)
Wide packing tape (I used the glossy kind)
Scissors
Decorative paper (I used 6 x 6 scrapbook paper)
Double-sided tape (optional–not pictured)
Computer and printer

Instructions:
1. Start by flipping through your recipe file and listing your favorite “old standby” recipes. This tutorial will teach you how to make 35 magnets, but you can make as few as you’d like; you can always add more later.

2. Open Microsoft Word and create a table that is 5 squares wide by 7 squares high (my “squares” were each 1.25″ x 1.5″). Type the name of one meal in each of the squares. Keep it simple–just name the main dish. You might also want to make several magnets that say “Left-Overs”, “Dinner Out”, “Take Out” and/or “New Recipe”. I used a 22 point French Script MT font, and I centered the meal names in the squares.

3. Print your page, and cut out the meal names. My meal names were smaller than the outlined squares once I cut them out. This doesn’t have to be perfect! And yes, if you look carefully, you’ll notice that one of my meals is scrambled eggs. What can I say? I’m a lazy cook!

4. Using scissors, cut a magnet to roughly 1.5″(w) by 1.75″(h). Cut a piece of scrapbook paper to the same dimensions. If you really want to annoy your friends & family with your fastidiousness, you can color code your magnets. I used yellow for meals that are protein-based, and blue for “carby” meals such as pasta dinners; that way, I can tell at a glance if my week is balanced (I’m a vegetarian, so I need to be mindful about protein).

5. Using double-sided tape–or very good fine motor skills–to keep the layers in place, layer the magnet, scrapbook paper, and meal name.

6. “Laminate” the whole thing with packing tape. To do this, cut the tape a little bit longer than the magnet, cut off all four corners of the tape, and fold toward the back (see below). This step can be time-consuming, but it’s mindless enough that it’s a good while-you’re-watching-a-movie project.

7. If you’d like to use my days of the week and the “What’s For Dinner” header, you can download a free PDF from my website here. To “laminate” shapes with rounded edges using packing tape, use “V” shaped notches to navigate the curves.

8. Arrange the current week’s magnets on the front of your fridge–keep other meal magnets on the side of the fridge for planning future weeks’ meals. Some of my readers with stainless steel refrigerators have written to say that they used a cookie sheet to display their magnets. To further streamline your meal planning, you can make your own customized, pre-printed grocery list with the instructions that I provided here.

This is a great project for families with kids…just be careful that small saboteurs don’t constantly shift the magnets to make it look like every night is pizza night!

Thanks SO much Amy – here’s a button for your blog as a thank you for sharing your idea with us! Make sure to check out Amy’s blog and her wonderful ideas!!!

XOXO

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