Ombre Pillowcase

We are in the works of a little decorating around our house.  I decided I needed a little ombre pillow for my room.

 This was probably one of the easiest projects I have done in a long time. 

Check out how I did it.

I picked up some Rit dye at the craft store and grabbed my trusty big pot.  My pillow case was made from a bright white Kona cotton.

Following the instructions on the package, I prepared my dye bath. Pre-soak your fabric and dunk it.

1. I dunked the entire pillow case for about 30 seconds to a minute.

2.  Pull fabric out and ring out the excess liquid.

3.  I rolled up about 1/3 of my pillowcase and dunked the bottom 2/3 for five to six minutes.

4. Pull fabric out and ring out the excess liquid.

5. I draped the top half of the fabric over the side of the pot, and left the bottom third sitting in the dye for about 30 minutes.  Every so often I would swish it around.

6. When you are finished coloring the fabric, rinse it in cold water until it runs clear.  I like to wash and dry my fabric next.  Then you should be ready to use it.

I was so so eager to do this, I didn't look around for gloves.  It has been several days and my finger tips still have a blue hue.  You might want to wear gloves.

My ombre pillow has a place on honor on the bench in our bay window.

I think this would be a really cool technique to use on coloring some drapes.  

Go visit this great ombre tutorial on Cotton and Curls for more step by step photos.

The artist in me

I have always wanted some bright yellow in our family room.  Mike tends to freak out when I say yellow.  The first thing I ever painted, in our marriage, was a little basement bath room.  I walked into Home Depot and picked what I thought was a fabulous yellow.  It was fabulous.  Fabulously too bright for that tiny of a space.  

So, I approached this situation a little differently.  First, I figured it would be better to find a yellow painting to hang on the wall instead of painting an entire room yellow. Second, I did this while Mike was out of town.  Ha Ha.  

When my search for the perfect yellow painting ended with nothing in hand, I figured I needed to take action.  I would paint my own painting.  With no art training - I just sort of put this together.  If you are a real painter, or married to one, please just humor me.

The supplies were picked up at Michael's with a few coupons.  Total cost $29; five bucks for paint on clearance and 40% off the canvas.  Not bad.

Collin got in at the action with me.  He was really excited to help.  We painted in the garage to prevent yellow paint from appearing anywhere else in my house.

We used school bus yellow, pale yellow, and white.  Long brush strokes from top to bottom.  Nothing fancy.

I thought it would look more artsy if we left it a little messy.  What do you think?  Actually don't answer that unless you have something nice to say. I need good vibes only.

Here is the painting hanging in the family room.  It turned out a little brighter than I expected (yellow always does that to me), but I love it just the same.

I thought the painting needed a little signature to look legit.  I didn't want to sign Nikki.  Instead I opted for a little Sp.  You know... Salty Pineapple

Have a good weekend friends.

A quick fix

I bought this top earlier in the year and only wore it a few times before I ruined it.  I tired bleaching out the stain, but nothing was working.  So, the poor blouse sat on a shelf in the laundry room.  This week I decided to do something about that blouse and bring it back from the dead.

I picked up some Rit dye at the craft store in fuchsia.  I would have loved to do this in orange, but I just wasn't sure it would cover the red right.

Following the instructions on the package, plus a little math on my part, I set to work.  The instructions tell you how to dye fabric starting at three pounds in weight.  I weighed my shirt and found that it was only four ounces.  I ended up using two and a half liters of hot water, two tablespoons of salt and twoish tablespoons of dye.

Soak your fabric, or in my case shirt, in clean water and then add to the dye bath.

Stir for 30 to 60 minutes.  Rinse out your shirt until the water runs clear then throw it in to the wash.  Don't forget to run a wash after to rinse any left over dye off of your washing machine.

don't laugh at me!

Here are two of the best self portraits I was able to get.  Not kidding these are two of the best.  You can see the fabric lightened up from when it was right out of the dye bath.  

I would call it neon pink and not fuchsia.  That's right people.  I am embracing it.  What's it?  The 80's, hello?  Neon, lace come on!  Cherie you can borrow this shirt any time you want.

I'm sad that it is not still the cream blouse, but I think this will be a great summer top.  Go dye something friends...

I'm Obsessed

I'm obsessed with food.  My biggest Pinterest board is my food board.  More than half of these pins are some kind of sweet or sugar related.

I haven't made anything from this board yet.  Right now I am trying to embrace a lower calorie diet. Do you think that  is why I am obsessed with food?  Um, yeah I think that's the problem.

Color

This weekend was full of color and paint.

I'm so excited about the color changes around my house.  Some are subtle and others not so much.

I am in love with my new nail polish.  It's called Mellow Yellow and it's fabulous. 

My hand looks kind of creepy.  Please ignore the hand and look at he nail polish.

Remember that spray paint from this project?  Well, I found another use for it.  

A few years ago Mike built me some planter boxes in our back yard.  I was a little stubborn and insisted that he didn't use red wood.  We have built things together in the past and Mike is always so good to listen to my demands ideas.  Mike and his dad usually shake their heads at me when I tell them what I want have envisioned.  In the end my ideas are a little off base.  I wish I had a picture of the armoire that Mike built to my specifications.  

These planters would have probably been just fine made out of redwood.  However, I am really excited about painting them this lagoon color.  It adds some fun and spunk to the back yard.  Plus I am eager to see what they will look like when the paint weathers. 

Oscar The Grouch

Can I be Oscar for a minute? Thanks.

1) Tubely is really making me mad. They tricked me and then used me. Not cool.  Anyone I have ever emailed was spammed by Tubely telling them I wanted to be their friend on their website.  Not true.

I do want to be your friends, just not through this stupid website. Please for give me for the spam.

2) It took me three days (mostly an exaggeration) to put this camera together.  I can't figure out how to focus the lens. When I put a roll of film in the picture counter wasn't working properly and I only got three shots. Annoying, but okay.

3) I dropped the film off yesterday at Walgreens to have it developed and scanned to a cd.  I didn't want to send it in to a really nice lab because I only anticipated three pictures.  When I stopped by this morning the film wasn't developed.  Lame.

4) I just got home and had a message from Walgreens and there were no images on any of the film. I don't have to pay for the processing, but junk because there weren't any pictures.

5) I decided a couple of months ago to grow out my hair.  It doesn't feel like it's growing at all.  I'm mad at my hair.

Enough being Oscar.  Sorry if I've just ruined your image of the always happy, nothing goes wrong at Salty Pineapple.  I just yelled at scolded my kids for fighting over a pack of gum.

To leave you on a happy note, here's a pretty picture of the roses my Mikey gave me for our anniversary last week.

Have a good weekend

Camera Mechanic

Last week I mentioned I wanted to buy a toy camera.

Well, I did.  I have been trying to build it for the last couple of days.  

If you are not interested in how the inside of a camera works, spend the extra ten bucks and just buy it built.  I am sort of wishing I had done that.  

Wish me luck building this thing.  My goal is to have to working by June.

What a surprise

I love Google Reader.  Do you use it?  It's a great way to read all your favorite blogs in one place.
This morning as I was reading along, I was totally caught off guard when I saw this post on Ohdeedoh.

I turned Collin's crib side rail into a magazine rack.

If you missed it the first time, here is the original post.

Thanks Ohdeedoh for featuring me!

Conquering the toys...OUTSIDE

Now that we have had some warm days, the kids are hanging out in the in the backyard.

I love sending the kids out to eat and play.   I don't love the mess they leave. Toys scattered everywhere isn't good for a clutter crazy mom

Today I solved that problem in less than half an hour and for around twelve bucks.  

Want to see how?

Supplies:

1 can of spray paint

1 big plastic planter with holes in the bottom

Some newspaper or cardboard

Head outside and spray the inside and outside of you planter. Wait for it to dry, and done.

Gather up your outside toys.

Dump them in the bucket.

Ta-da.  

I wanted the bucket to have holes in the bottom so any rain or sprinkler water could drain out easily.

Hooray for tidy backyards.

Mag-neato

This has to be the fastest birthday present I have ever made.

Magnet styling by Tess.

I bought this unfinished magnet board probably six and a half years ago.  It's just been sitting in my closet. Lame, I know.  I decided now was the time to use it! Last night I painted it before I went to bed.

- Pink - Crackle finish - White -

Dry overnight and you are set.

I'm not a huge crackle finish gal, but I thought this would be really cute for my daughter's friend.

This morning I whipped up a few magnets to adorn the board. The back of the board had hanging brackets, but I added to silver ribbon for a little flare. This all took me less than an hour.

I'm off to walk Tess to the birthday party.  Then its home to do some painting on the house.

Happy 9th Honey!

May 11, 2002
American Fork, Utah
Mount Timpanogos Temple

I can't believe how quickly the last nine years have flown by.  

Mike, thank you for being my best friend.  I love you.

Day of Mothers

I hope everyone had a nice day yesterday.

I had a marvelous weekend compliments of my husband, friends and family.

On Friday, Mike surprised me with a night on the town. We met up with some friends and had a great time and good food.  My little sister stayed over night with my kids.  I was totally shocked Mike was able to pull this off without me finding out.  We brunched at the great restaurant Pago, and stopped for a little market shopping.  

The weather was perfect on Saturday.  The kids played outside all day and even got some sun.

A group of friends came over for a late Cinco De Mayo dinner.

Uh, Susan's Tres Leches was the best I have ever had!

Sunday rolls in, and it's sad and dreary outside.

 The gray weather actually didn't bother me.  After church, I spent the afternoon napping in the basement, watching a movie with my family.  The best Mother's Day present ever. 

We topped the day off with a big family dinner.  It was so nice to have all the McBrides over. 

Today the kids don't have school, and it's still raining. Not a problem though.  I got to sleep in until 10:30 and we're hanging out in jammies.  Greatest weekend so far this year. 

A quick thanks to all the women in my life.  Mom, I love you. Linda, I love you too. And thanks for raising such a fine young man. To all my sisters, including sisters in law, you are all so wonderful.  Thank you for being my friend and loving me quirkiness and all.  Thank you to all for mothering and caring for my children as well.