Thursday, September 29, 2011

Candy Corn Time

I like CANDY and I like CORN but I'm not a big fan of candy corn. It's almost October though and I thought this would be fun to try. Here's how I saved this "fail" project! ;)

My "save" below which I think turned out nicely. 

My sad attempt of candy corns below.
I used Styrofoam cones and plaster of Paris. I used small cones and cut them down with a knife to give them a flatter shape. I mixed up the plaster and from the get go I had trouble with the consistency. I followed the directions but it was too soupy. I still spread the cones with the plaster and let it set for 24 hours. I wet sanded them and it was hard, REALLY HARD so I quit and one cone looks like that one character on Yo Gabba Gabba with all its lumps. The poor thing.

I had the most success with this one below. I used acrylic paints and probably should have made the orange stripes a little wider. Oops.

I wasn't completely thrilled with the result and I found this adorable idea of using yarn by Thrifty Decor Chick and thought I'd give it a whirl! I picked up yarn that was on sale and got more muted shades of the orange and yellow but I think it works. It gives it a more rustic look. All I did was wrap the Styrofoam cones until they were covered. If you want a workout for your arms, try this craft. 


What are you doing to get in the Fall spirit?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

One Organized Attic

Giddy is me! I'm very sore but excited to reveal our clean and organized attic. I have spent the past two days cleaning and reorganizing our attic and man was it a workout! Guess it was all the kneeling, squatting, crawling and lifting that did it to me. It was a project that was a looooooong time coming and now that it's done and I am so pleased with it! There is actually floor space and room to move around in there! High five to all! Booyah! Hah if you saw the BEFORE pictures you might be a tad impressed because it was, eh um - atrocious!  I was too embarrassed to share the filth and chaos before I started. 

To give you an idea; you could step into the attic but you couldn't move anywhere. These rubbbermaid boxes were unlabeled, tossed and stacked and there was junk everywhere. There was just no rhyme or reason to the organization whatsoever. We moved into this house when I was nine months pregnant with the first child (several years ago) and ever since we've lived here it feels like we have been trying to just get by. Little by little we're getting there.

Don't you just love the neat and organized Rubbermaid tubs?!?! I do. These are the types of things that give me great feelings of accomplishment! This room was a total disaster and I slowly and very carefully found a place for each item we decided to keep. I started prepping for this overwhelming undertaking a week ago by going through kid's closets to sort and weed through their clothes to update their closets by size and season. Thank heavens for my mother who helped me do that. It's hard to get much done with munchkins who want to "help" Mommy do everything. The dining room table is currently covered with clothes and misc items to sell in a garage sale. 

Night before last I went to town organizing. I pulled all cardboard boxes out of the attic that we didn't need and made a pile to take to the recycling center. I can mark that off my list because I visited recycling today!
I really tried to work with the space, feel the space and move things around to make better sense of how it's used for storage. I thought it might work to pull all the Rubbermaid tubs out and line them up one by one that way there would be no lifting and moving them around. I labeled each storage container on the lid and on the side exposed so you can make out what the contents is in each box.  
Pretty sweet! I grouped all objects and items and put them in the best possible locations as far as size and room. I flipped up my large scale paintings so they took less room. The luggage is near the door for easy access. I tried to organize things in the attic where they made the most sense.
As for the countless bins I used my label maker and put two labels on each bin, one on top and one on the side so they're easy to find. Half the bins hold children's clothing so I grouped the bins by size and put the nearest closest to the door so I can locate better.




It feels like a weight has been lifted now that the attic is organized and clean. I even took the broom to it this time! A big YAY! What does your attic look like? How do you organize yours? It's the one room you don't see in most people's homes but man does it drive me crazy in our house, well not anymore. ;)



Thursday, September 22, 2011

Piling Up

Oh the piles! Tis the season for decking the house out and I'm already cluttering before getting started! It never fails that there are ALWAYS piles of things taking over rooms in our house! GRRRRR! These are bins from the attic and they are all children's clothes. I spent one day last weekend sorting and organizing hand me downs from one child to the next. They keep outgrowing everything so it feels like a constant cycle of changing out their clothes.
 
Next it's cleaning out the attic and fixing it up in an organized fashion. This means another yard sale even though I just did one in the Spring! We have way too much stuff and for sanity's sake I have to weed and get rid of things. Between sorting and organizing to put things back in the attic I'm making piles of things that we don't use to sell. The neighborhood isn't doing a Fall sale so I've got to get a permit and advertise on my own. Wish me luck! I have bags of toys and things scattered through the house to sell which will make this pile grow for the next couple of weeks. For sanity's sake I am on a mission to declutter yet again! Yee haw!

What are you doing to organize and declutter? 


Monday, September 19, 2011

Scraptastic! Scrap Fabric!

Hooray now that Monday is under our belts! What have you been up to? We just survived a chaotic yet fun child's birthday party over the weekend! I've gotten a head start on some holiday decor but it's all still in progress so I wanted to share a small project I completed.

Last week I made this cute fabric bubble wreath made out of a microfiber type of cloth left over from my bench pad. The wreath is kinda cute! I like how it turned out. 


All you need is a straw wreath, a few yards of fabric, scissors and straight pins.

Picture Tutorial
Cut fabric in 3 or 4 inch squares. I didn't cut mine all the same size and did make some rectangles instead of squares.  

I've used different fabric for the tutorial because I gave the wreath to my mom and didn't take pictures as I went along.

Fold the fabric square in half to make a triangle.

Fold one corner of the triangle over the middle corner.

Next you fold the left corner down to the bottom point where the fabric meets on either side to make a "bubble". This is a bird's eye view.

Flip the fabric upside down and push a pin through the point where all the corners meet so it goes through all pieces of the fabric.

Pin it into the wreath and it forms a puffy "bubble" type shape. Continue this all over the wreath covering the pins and you'll have yourself a really cute handmade wreath!

It's super simple and you can do this while watching tv or something!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Skulls And Bones, Well Sorta!

WHAZZUP?!?! How's everybody doing? Is anybody else getting excited about Halloween this year? I can't wait. I'm working on the kid's costumes and yikes, I have to find the pieces I purchased after Halloween last year. They are prolly buried in a bin somewhere in the attic. That is one room that I don't want to step foot in but really need to clean out. I plan to clean out the attic once it starts cooling off. You should see our attic. Well, no. You shouldn't! Talk about SCARY! Ok no more tangents I promise. On to the scary Halloween Decor!

Sooooo - Say Bye Bye to Cool Blue Sea Shells and HELLO Ugly, Gruesome Ones!

On our vacation at the beach we saw a lot of gross looking shells. I was very excited to find part of a sand dollar but these things below were scattered all along the shore. As I walked studying them I thought they resembled bones. They looked like creepy skeletal parts. I did some research to try and figure out what they are called and couldn't find them. They may be crustaceans for all I know. If you do happen to know, please do tell!

Usually my son and I are on the hunt for the prettiest shells at the beach but this time we thought it would be fun to look for the ugliest, creepiest looking ones to use for Halloween decorations. 

We cleaned all the shells and placed them in this jar and gently placed a Styrofoam glitter skull ($1.00 at Dollar Tree) on top. It's always great to use what you have to decorate and this project was budget friendly and fun! How appropriate for Halloween! EWWW! Can't wait to see what other people are doing for Halloween this year!






Sunday, September 11, 2011

Back From The Beach

Hello fellow crafters! I'm home from being at the beach for nearly a week with my family and I have a case of the crafties! The trip was great but I'll be getting the craft ON very soon! I think I'm having withdrawals! Haha! The vacay was excellent, heck ANY time at the BEACH is AWESOME. Now that I'm settled in, I'm ready to get the projects started up and completed! 

Don't you just love the BEACH? Palm trees, sand, fresh salty air, the sound of the ocean... NATURE! I love it! The atmosphere is so much more peaceful at the beach. I'll give you a little peep at what I saw on my stroll to the beach each day! I was trying to envision what type of house I would want if I ever had the opportunity to move to the water! Hmmm!

Here are two cottages with more modern features.   
 

Here are two older ones. They all blend so well though!

I don't think I saw two cottages that looked the same. I love that about the beach. The houses all look different and all paint colors are acceptable! 

The house below was my favorite house to walk by! I really liked the fresh style of it. It was a very simple bungalow but it had a cool flare to it! 

I zoomed in just for you! It's got these cool zebra painted striped shutters, which I thought added a nice creative flare. It was not overdone. The shutters were such a simple touch that I thought it looked classy!

The shutters were more like panels in between the doorways but I think they were quite stylish!

Another pink house! See? It works at the beach.

Another fun thing I like to do at the beach is to check out the signs or names on the houses. I've been trying to come up with one too for the future! Wishful thinking but you never know! Some are really clever and I just think it adds great humor and creativity to these vacation homes. Some names tell a story about the owners. I couldn't capture all the clever signs I saw(I didn't want to look like a stalker!) but here are a few that I thought were cute for different reasons. 

If you had a beach house, what would your sign say?

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Did Somebody Say Dessert??? Quick and Easy Dessert!

I Scream! You Scream! We All Scream For ICE CREAM SANDWICHES, and just in time for Labor Day cookouts! How's everybody hanging on this holiday weekend? I've been working on some home projects that I'll share soon but thought this dessert recipe might be appropriate for a weekend dessert! Sometimes you just have to take time away from decorating to eat dessert! 

This dessert is a quickie and I made it last night for a cookout. If you like whip cream and ice cream sandwiches, your sweet tooth will enjoy this!


Ingredients
24-ice cream sandwiches
1-large container of whipped topping
chocolate syrup
caramel syrup
nuts - optional

Using a large rectangular pan put down one layer of ice cream sandwiches. 

You may have to break one or two to fit them all.

Spread half the whipped cream over the layer. You'll cover more than I did. I accidentally used a small container of whipped cream and had to go back to the store for another one. 

After you spread the whipped topping, you can put a little chocolate and caramel.

Layer the rest of the ice cream sandwiches.

Cover with whipped cream and put some chocolate syrup and caramel.

You could do cute designs with it too but I wanted to make this quick and easy! Yum! If you make it, let me know how it turns out! I'd love to hear or hear how you might modify yours!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Can You Have Your Cake and Eat It Too?

Not if you get one of these!
It's a diaper cake! How is everybody doing? It has been another busy week but it's winding down! So going back to some old crafty projects, this is one I made a few years ago for a close friend who was having a baby boy. It's very easy! Just follow the simple steps below for the baby celebrating fun!

Supplies

  • card board cake bottom
  • paper lace doily
  • a few skinny long wooden dowel rods
  • rubberbands
  • a regular pack of diapers - I buy them size 2 or 3 so they are bigger and take up more room and the new parents can enjoy the centerpiece for a little while.
  • Ribbon - I used 2 rolls of wide ribbon from Wal-Mart and polka dotted from a craft store.
  • Some sort of useful topper or items to hang off the ribbon
Roll the diapers and rubberband them, making three layers. Carefully put it together placing the dowel rods thru each layer to hold the layers together and finish with ribbon. You can do so many things with this. Be creative!

It makes for a great conversation piece, whether a centerpiece or gift for any new mommy!


Have a great weekend!