Knee High Boots to Calf Boots makeover

These are my knee high boots. I ordered them online several years ago, maybe 6. I had to order them online because you just can't find some shoes in stores in wide width.

I loved them! Then I had another baby.

You see, my feet grow a half size every time I have a baby. I used to be a 7ish, and now I am an 8 1/2. Not only did my feet get bigger but so did my calf's. I haven't worn these boots in about 4 years.

I was about to give them to Goodwill when I thought, "I wonder if I could make them shorter? If I am just going to give them away I may as well try. There is not harm!"

So I did!

These are not leather, some faux stuff. So I measured the boot, drew a straight line and cut.

(sorry... I forgot to take a before picture)

After.

The cut is pretty clean and it won't fray so I am not worried. I will have pants on anyway so it is not such a big deal.

I have to put some stitches in the zipper to keep it from separating but they are pretty much done!

It was worth a try, and it worked out!

What I got for Christmas

Look what I got for Christmas from my amazing sister in-law!

This one is the best...a CD book about the Prophets of my church.

Starting at Joseph Smith, each disk has one prophet and the dates he served. Ending today with President Monson and the First Presidency.
So fun! I think I enjoy looking at it more than my kids!

These are tiles with vinyl nativity characters. I need to get some plate stands to hold these. They will be perfect on my new shelf next year.

Sweet little apron for Danika. She can play in her little play kitchen with a sparkly new apron.

Oven mitt. I love the fabric, so cheerful!

Thanks Missy for the great gifts!

Kettle Corn

Do you love Kettle Corn?

I recently did a post on how to make my Homemade Kettle Corn.

Yummy!

Kettlecorn.co contacted me and added my recipe to their website.

You really have to check it out.

An entire website devoted to Kettle Corn....WOW!

I know what I am making tonight.

Floating Shelves Tutorial

Do you love the look of floating shelves?

I do!

They are just so darn expensive! Even at IKEA they are more than I am willing to spend.

So I decided to make some myself. I did a bunch of research to find the easiest and cheapest way to do it. I kept coming across one way,

Make them from a Door. Really, a door?!

My parents were in town for Christmas so I decided to use my Dad's help.

He is a cabinet maker after all!

So here we go!

Finished product. I just threw some stuff on it to take the picture.

Next Christmas will be MUCH better!

Empty...Sad ;(

I started with a plain door. I got mine at Home Depot. We decided to go with a 28"inch wide door. It was about $20 bucks. I will be able to get three full length shelves out of one door. Or I can cut them into smaller lengths.

THOUGHT: If you are going to cut smaller shelves you will need to get some decorative molding to cover the open ends of your door. Just glue or tack them on.

Home Depot will not cut doors, we begged but they refused, so we were going to have to do it ourselves. I do not have a table saw so we improvised. We got a 1x4 to use as a straight edge, clamped it down and used the circular saw to make a straight cut. This was a two person job, one to hold the door down and one to make the cut.

Here it is after we cut it. Inside of door and outside of door.

Sorry about the fire extinguisher in the pic. Safety First!

This is my Dad. Love him! We used a chisel to clean up the inside of the door. In these cheap doors the only thing inside is cardboard. It was super easy to break the cardboard out and create a space to slide the brace in. If you don't have a chisel a bread knife would do the same thing.

Here is my Dad pushing the cardboard in to create space. He also scraped away some of the glue that was holding the cardboard in place.

A bit of sanding to clean that cut edge up. Now it is ready for paint. I used a high quality black semi gloss spray paint. I sprayed about three coats to create a glossy finish. Sorry no pics!

These are the braces that the door will slide onto. My Dad cut these on the table saw at his house before he came to Vegas. He made them exactly the same size as the inside of the door, 1 3/16". That way the door slides perfectly onto them. If my Dad had not been able to do it before hand I would have got a 2x2 post and had Home depot cut it down to 1 3/16". Make sense?

This is hard to see but it is showing that we have measured, leveled and pre drilled holes in the walls where we want to attach the brace board. We went into studs only. Better safe than sorry!

Measure, level, draw level line.

We pre sunk our screws, you don't have to. Just make sure your screw is long enough to go through your brace, the dry wall and into the stud. About 2 1/2 or 3" screws. You will need a fully charged drill to do this. It took a lot of strength for my dad to get these screws through so many layers. I suggest you get some man muscle to help you out for this step.

Slide on the shelf. You can add some wood glue if you like. I didn't because we rent and I want to take this shelf with me when we move. Screw some tiny flat head screws to attach the shelf to the bracket.

My shelf is high enough that I am not going to worry so much about covering them.

DONE!

I can't wait to decorate it for the seasons!

Thanks for the help Dad! Love you!

Homemade Laundry Detergent Part 2

Several months ago I made Homemade Laundry Detergent. I have been using it for about 2 1/2 months and I LOVE IT!

I just made my second batch yesterday. It is so easy and it really does work.

No more itchy skin from store detergents. There is no stiffness, smells and it even works on dedicates.

You should try it!

My Recent Absence...

I am so sorry for my absence!

I have had in-laws and my parents over for the last week and had no time and no motivation to craft or to blog.

But I am back and I have some fun projects in the works, so stay tuned!

FYI: I am going to start building furniture! I know! Crazy!

Mean People at Christmas?!

I got my first mean comment today.

A week before Christmas!

The nerve!

I know that sometimes I have typos and sometimes I use words incorrectly. That is life. I like to try to type like I talk, and sometimes that is not correct.

So I received a comment about how I misspelled a word. It was the "voila". I spelled it "whala".

At the time I knew it was wrong. Spell check couldn't help me and I was lazy and didn't pull up the dictionary. I let it slide.

BIG DEAL!

This person felt that they needed to post a comment about it.

My mother is allowed to tell me those type of things, not some random "Anonymous".

Well, this is what I think...

Whop de do!

Whala!

Bone Apatete!

Saylavee!

Ta Da!

And every other word I can possibly misspell and use incorrectly.

Merry Christmas!