DIY: Window re-screening

Hope you are having a good Memorial day! 

This is one I have never done before but it was surprisingly very easy to do. Since becoming a homeowner, I have had to learn a lot of this stuff on the fly. YouTube has been very helpful. 

For this particular project though, I used Pinterest. 

My tenant called to let me know that there were holes in several of the window screens. J and I went there to get the screens out of the windows. We found a place that does the re-screening and took them there. 

Well, to my shock, they were going to charge $240 (before taxes) for 6-screens! it was going to be $15 for materials and $25 for labor. For EACH screen! No way!!! I decided to see if this was something I could do. A quick search through Pinterest said yes. So I purchased the materials. And went to work. 

Screen with holes.

Take out the rubber seal. Its as simple as pulling it out carefully. No tools required.

Supplies for re-screening. 

Measure and cut. 

Add plastic tubing and then using a pen knife, cut out excess.

All done. Doing all 6-screens took an hour.

Expertise needed: Beginner. ANY adult can do it.
Total approximate time: 1-hour for 6-screens.
Total spent on sewing materials: $56 (includes taxes). Yup. A whopping savings of about $200 (factoring in 6% taxes)! Can't beat that!
Feedback: I am glad I did these myself. I would have been upset if I found out I paid $255 (after taxes) for something that took an hour and cost less than $60 to do.

QUESTION:

Have you ever done a home DIY project? If so, how did it turn out?

DIY: Dress to skirt refashion. My $4 skirt.

So remember this dress that I made last year? Well, I must admit that it has been pretty comfortable to wear in the house. However, I really wanted to be able to wear it (or a version of it) outside the house.

Of course, I started thinking about what else I could do with it and the idea of wearing it as a skirt with a sweater was appealing and I figured it would be a nice spring outfit.

I went to my trusted site and found this skirt. Granted, it was a skirt for a kid but I used the same concept. I love all the stuff this lady does. Its just so beautiful and easy to follow! It really is a very simple skirt and the entire thing from start to finish took me less than an hour. SCORE!

This is what the dress looked like. My sister called it a "house dress"!

First things first. I cut the top off after I measured to see what length I wanted the dress to be.

Back of dress.

Front of dress.

Then I added a lining to the dress since its a really light fabric.

Lining added.

Then it was time to sew in the casing for the waist band.

I added the elastic and decided to take off the giant pink pockets.

But they left these marks. I guess I'll have to wash it and see if it'll go away.

All done! 

Now, that's much better. A skirt I can (and did) wear to work. 

There you have it. Before and after. 

Expertise needed: Intermediate. I guess a lot of the stuff I do now require a little more practice. It isn't that hard though. A comfortable beginner can also do it.
Total approximate time: This was likely one of THE EASIEST sewing projects I have ever done. It took me a total of maybe an hour? More likely 45-minutes.
Total spent on sewing materials: I purchased the elastic for the waist band a while back for $4.99. I didn't use all of the though so I'll just account for half the roll @ $2.50. I also got 5-yards of white lining materials for various projects. I only used about 1-yard. It was $1.50/yard. I already had the chevron material. Total for this skirt refashion was $4.00. Not bad huh?
Feedback: I am already looking at other earlier sewing projects to see what else I can "rework" so stay tuned!

Photo Dump Wednesday: Mommy-daughter selfies

JOE and I love taking selfies.

I decided for this week's Photo Dump Wednesday, I'll blog some of the selfies of me and my little girl. She's getting so big!

Enjoy!

Have I mentioned my favorite color is blue? Well, it is :-). I know its not a very girly color so a dark shade of purple is sometimes my go to color to make it more girly :-).

I think we'd just woken up. Yup...that's my morning look. 

Making faces :-).

Another early morning shot. Don't even  ask why she has a faux hawk. I think it was a braid that landed funny on her head.

Pretend crying? My daughter can sometimes be dramatic!

End of the work day watching tv. This was taken on JOE's iPAD. I mean, mommy's iPAD that she has claimed!

And last but not the least, this was of JOE and I on Saturday right before we headed out to lunch. 

Hope you're having a fabulous Wednesday!

DIY: An African print playdate dress for JOE

I FINALLY finished this dress after spending 3-weeks. Granted, it was more like 30-minutes once a week but still! I wasn't working from any real pattern but rather from my head which made things a little more challenging.

I had some ankara fabric from my wedding 3-years ago so I decided to put it to good use and make a dress for JOE.

I eye balled a dress from her closet and used it for creating my pattern.

Here is everything all cut up.

My first time doing gathers.

The zipper was pinned in to give me an idea of where I want it to be.

Front of dress with pinned in zipper.

All done!

And here are pictures of my little model in her new dress. She didn't want to take off her tights so I had to take the pictures with her wearing it :-).

Expertise needed: Intermediate. Only because you have to be comfortable sewing in a lining as well as a zipper. It took me a couple of tries. Also, you need you need to know how to sew gathers.
Total approximate time: This took a little over 90-minutes total time BUT I did it over a 3-week period!
Total spent on sewing materials: $0. I already had everything at home from previous projects. The ankara was a wedding gift.
Feedback: I liked this dress and will make other variations of it. The good thing is that I know what I did wrong and can make adjustments/modifications next time.

Foolery: Things that make me go hmmm...

Yay!!! Its Friday! Now, if only I can figure out a way to extend the weekend so that it'll feel more like 4-days every weekend :-D.

This was interesting. He gave her "a $50,000 parting gift" and changed his mind. I am siding with the judge on this one. I also think it was wrong of him to break off the engagement via text. But without knowing what may have led to it, I guess I shouldn't judge. What's your take on it?

Seriously? There is a drink that costs $1,000? Wow...I don't think I'll ever spend that kind of money on A drink! That just doesn't make sense to me! If I do however win the lotto and am super rich and decide to indulge, that drink better make me skinny, have beautiful long hair and flawless skin. If it can do that, then I'll count it as money well spent :-).

Have a fabulously fun and safe weekend! And remember to be kind to strangers!

Photo Dump Wednesday: Weekend in review

I haven't really tried any new recipes so there wasn't much to report on there.

This post is just random ramblings of last weekend. 

Last week, I tried a new hair do. I love it! I have received so many compliments on it. And before you ask, that's a piece. But it does look real. I love it because it matches the rest of my curl pattern. For only $9.99...WINNING!

When J got home last Friday, JOE decided that they should have a tea party. Here she is having tea with her dad. I think he was pouring too much or perhaps not enough? Who knows???

She had had enough! She wanted her teapot back!

See her little picnic blanket on her bed? Yup...she was having a picnic with pinka-pooh and the rest of her "friends".

Tea time!

On Sunday after Church, we went into DC to take in the sites. Coincidentally, it was also the National Cinco de Mayo festival on the national mall so we got a chance to enjoy it a bit.

Being goofy :-).

Then it was off to the Natural History museum to see the Hope Diamond. I have been wanting to see it since I saw the movie Titanic. I didn't even know it was in our backyard!

Anyways, this giant elephant was on display when we walked in. JOE knew what it was! I was so proud of my baby!

So I waited in the rather short line to see it. 

Hmmm...there it is! I was a bit under-whelmed! I think the movie Titanic made it more glamorous. I mean, it is cool and all but I think either the diamond needs to be polished OR the glass casing needs to be cleaned cause it really didn't sparkly much.

Anyways, there were other magnificent pieces there. If you are interested in seeing gem stones on display, this place certainly has good eye candy!

Then we visited the Air and Space museum. JOE and I at this point were suffering from annoying allergies. So not a lot of pictures were taken. But it was definitely a good visit.

While waiting for the train back home, JOE decided to prop up her feet while eating her gold fish and listening to a rather loud but entertaining lady talking on the phone. Needless to say, we now know who can and cannot watch TV in the lady's room, who is allowed to do their laundry with hers in her house and who she likes/does not like in her household. Yup...it was special. 

Hope you're having an awesome week so far!