Elementary But Hey It Works!

How is your weekend going? It has been good here so far. I have the luxury of living near an IKEA and so this afternoon I went to look around and pick up a few things for another small project. This time I pushed a stroller instead of using a cart. IKEA is wonderful but am I the only one alive who cannot control an IKEA cart? I swear pushing a cart at IKEA wears me out. I wouldn't consider myself a complete whimp but the carts seem to drift and it makes me crazy! I just picked up a few things but it was fun to get out and window shop!

A couple of months ago I did the following little project and it was fun and free! I covered infant formula cans in card stock scrapbook paper to corral my artsy crafty supplies in my kitchen craft cabinet. I got the idea from seeing contact paper-covered tin cans that hold pencils at the Pediatrician's office. I spend quite a bit of time at the doctor's office with my sickling tykes.

It's pretty simple as you will see. All you need is:

-A clean tin can, you can use soup cans for smaller items.

-Scrapbook paper

-ModPodge glue

-Paint brush to apply the glue

Strip the label off your can and after you've cut the paper to fit around your can, start spreading the glue! Next you'll wrap the paper around the can and apply more glue over the paper if you need to. Let it dry and the cans are ready for storage! YAY! How do you store your craft supplies?

Conquering Kitchen Clutter: Part Three

Happy hump day! How's your week going? Has anyone done any organizing? I haven't done much this week on the organizing front. It was migraine city one night and last night I was so whooped from work that I crashed early and I think I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow! Can you actually do that? heh. Timber! I really think I did! Anyhow I'll be happy if I can get the laundry washed and put away before it's time to do more loads!

Oh I have to share that I did finally relax some last weekend. I have trouble relaxing. 

EVER! I think it's partly just in my blood to be busy and to always want to be doing something productive. Over the weekend I did an exercise (not so much a conscious decision but it just sorta happened and I liked!) in leaving the wrist watch at home and spending time away from any clocks and simply losing track of time! It was awesome! So good for the soul! Went to the park and played like a kid! 

Tangents tangents is muwa. Okay now back to organizing which I did a few weeks ago and am just now getting to! Below is the BEFORE picture of one of my craft cabinets which is located in the kitchen. I have gobs of artsy crafty goodies and supplies waiting to be used! Everything was pretty much thrown in the cabinet, no rhyme or reason. 

Junk to the left! Junk to the right!

I basically just grouped similar things together

and tossed what I could.

My spools of ribbon are stacked to the right. 

I used jars to store stones.

To the left side, bottom row of the cabinet I decorated some tin cans to corral miscellaneous items. Sounds elementary and maybe it is, but it's a cheap and functional solution! I'll share that whole project with you in my next post. Until then, hope you are able to get away and lose yourself somewhat! It's so refreshing!

Back Up and Running

My computer is back up and running and fortunately it was an easy fix. Since I have had limited computer access this week I used my spare time to play with my new TOY! I'm stoked! Are you ready??????

Drum roll please!!! I got a cricut this week. Do you have one? How do you like it? Any advice? My husband surprised, no shocked me with it Monday night. I have been wanting one for a while but certainly didn't expect to be getting one. Wow what a nice surprise. It's the Expressions one in teal blue, just like I wanted. For those of you who don't know what a cricut is, well first of all it is pronounced like the insect "cricket", which I did not realize until my husband purchased mine. It is a personal paper cutter. I have read it does more than just paper too! Anyhow, I was calling it a cry-cut and my husband was completely mortified when he went shopping for one and asked a salesman about a cry-cut and the sales guy laughed at him and said, "dude it's a "cricket" see the little insect on the box," pointing to the picture of the little cricket face. Whoops. Leave it to me to mess that up. I am still having a hard time pronouncing the darn thing correctly, even now that I own one and have been corrected! Ijust forget what it's called. OWNED! haha!


So last night I finally pulled the cricut out of the box and hooked it up. I played around with it to see how it worked and it's pretty cool. Oh let the creative juices flow! Now I have so many project ideas that I can't wait to try out, on top of all the other home decor projects I am working on! Did I ever mention that I am QUEEN of starting projects and having too many projects going on at one time? It's one of those things with me. DIS-TRACK-SHONE(I know how to spell distraction for your information, just trying to emphasize)!!!!! I get all my projects done, I just keep coming up with new ones before finishing the older ones. I'm constantly reminding myself to slow down, first things first... do one project at a time, start to finish, before starting another one!!! I have so many ideas though! Oh I can't wait to see what this baby can do!

Hugs and Kisses!

This was another fun project!

All you need is:

Letters to spell out your cute saying  

  Found mine at Hobby Lobby

Scrap book paper

  Got mine at Wal-Mart in a big book

Mod Podge and a wide paint brush to apply the glue

  You can find at any craft store

Pencil

Scissors

 

I tried gluing the letters together with the glue gun but they just didn't stay because the letters are too thin.

 

Once you decide your layout, place each letter on a piece of scrap book paper with the design facing down and the letter backward so that you write on the back on the paper and not the front. Trace the letter on the paper. Simply cut the letter out of the paper and use Mod Podge to glue it to the wooden letter. Brush the glue on the letter and lay the paper on top of the letter and glue over that. I used putty to hang my letters to my mirrors. It's an easy way to add a little dimension to a room!

I've been meaning to add this project before now, things have just been a little busy on this end the past couple of weeks. Then over the weekend my computer died (happy happy joy joy, sense the sarcasm!) so I'm on my husband's. I'm hoping to get my computer back up and running by the end of the week. I know this post is short and sweet but I wanted to get it posted before Valentine's Day! I'm sorry it took me this long but I hope everyone forgives me!  Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. I hope you get to do something special with that special someone in your life!

XOXO

Drab To Fab Curtains

Boy has it been a busy week! I'm pumped after a little workout on the old elliptical trainer. Finally found some motivation to type up this post of a project I did last week and I hope you enjoy! 

 

The living room in our house is a nice neutral tan color and a few years ago I hung some casual brown window panels to add cover to the windows. Before these window treatments I had plaid tab topped valances, but wanted something more to offer a little privacy. When I purchased them I didn't realize they were about the same color as the walls. BORING! I've had to make do but finally found an inexpensive way to break up the monotony and lighten things up. I found another project similar to this for ideas and if you know which blog it is, please let me know so I can pay credit where it belongs!

All you need is fabric, ribbon, stitch witchery, an iron, and scissors oh my! Oh and your curtain panels as the base!

 

Here are the drapes BEFORE and no I didn't use my flash. I am playing around with settings on my point and shoot type of camera and some are darker than others. Some pictures are a little fuzzy so please just bear with me. See how DRAB they are! Eh, they're just there. That's all.

 

Two windows make up one corner of the room but I didn't get a picture of the other window.

Take your piece of fabric (I bought three yards of some white CLEARANCE fabric and used approximately two thirds of it for four window panels. The original panels were bought at Walmart and are a standard size. As for the ribbon, I used 4 rolls of 15 feet worth of ribbon. I cut each roll of ribbon in half and used two strands on each window panel. So it turned out to be one roll of ribbon for one window panel.

I cut out a strip of fabric. I used my measuring tape to measure the size I wanted. I made the width 10 inches wide so when I folded the fabric edges over, the fabric strips would be about 8 inches wide total. I eyeballed the length of the fabric. Using the measuring tape I drew pencil dots along the fabric and used a t-square to connect the dots to have a straight line to cut along. I also used pink fabric scissors so the husband isn't tempted to snag them for something other than cutting fabric! ; )

 

After you have cut the "over sized" panel out you are ready to clean the edges by folding them over with the stitch witchery. I say over sized b/c I left about two inches for the folds!!! Follow the directions on the package for that. You use an iron and a damp cloth to glue the folds down. Once I had my panel ready to attach to the curtain, this is what it looked like below. Nothing about it is exact but I think it works. It's handmade and that is what I love about it! I can sew by hand somewhat but recently discovered hemming tape and stitch witchery, and until I learn to operate a sewing machine, this will have to do!

 

 

Using the iron and stitch witchery, I carefully ironed the panel to the curtain!

I put mine ten inches away from the top of the curtain.

 

Then you figure out where you want to place the ribbon. I went about a quarter of an inch off of the edge of the white fabric. It covered the edge of the stitch witchery hem. I eyeballed it to do this part!

 

I added the second strand of ribbon below, in small stretches, until I had the whole piece attached.

Here is the result! I have nice, comfy/casual looking drapes that were so easy to make. It's amazing what small touches can do to a room! Below are the pictures during the day and night!

 

 

A little patience goes a long way. Take your time to do this project. It took me four nights of ironing to complete the curtains but I think it was worth the wait!

Conquering Kitchen Clutter: Part Two

To relax? What's that? This week work has been kicking my bootay and I have fallen asleep a couple of nights on the couch! Yuk Yuk. So tonight feet are kicked up and I'm having a delightful dessert - mint Oreo cookies and a glass of milk! It's a little heaven in every bite! I'm sorry, I just haven't been able to sit down and kick back much lately so it is a nice change. Ahhh!

Getting back to my little kitchen cleanup... last weekend I went through every cabinet and drawer, one by one and pulled everything out. I ripped up the woven gripper padding which lined all the cabinets and drawers and I wiped the cabinets and drawers clean. I had thought about relining the cabinets with sticky tile linoleum but for now, I've just taken up the liners and left the cabinets as is. I did leave the liners in the cabinets where I store the glasses and everyday dishes. Since the liners are woven and have holes, the silverware cabinet had some major crumbs and were just plain icky. It feels cleaner and way more organized. I didn't take pictures of all the dishes and things I got rid of but I did get rid of a lot of stuff!

The "plastic" cabinet is always a mess so I got rid of a few items we don't use and kept what we do.

 

 

The woven liners would always lift up and get wrinkled up so I'm glad they're gone.
They just weren't necessary(like I thought) in every cabinet!

We got new pots and pans and dishes for Christmas so it was time to do a kitchen overhaul and go through everything! 

Just a little reorganizing goes a looooong way! Now it's easier to find things and by simplifying what I have in the kitchen, cooking has been more fun and less stressful.

I'm really looking forward to revealing a project I've been working on this week, that is when I haven't been crashing on the couch! I'll give you a little hint... I am doing something to update the living room curtains! One panel is complete and I'll share when I have them all finished! I think you'll like!

TTFN! 

Ta Ta For Now!

Conquering Kitchen Clutter: Part One

How was your weekend? It was a very productive one on my end and I took sooooo many pictures of my decluttering and organizing that I am going to split it into a few parts. Decluttering and organizing for me, is such a big feeling of accomplishment, but I was up WAY too late Friday night! It's one of those things though... if I get the energy when I'm not at work and the kiddos are sleeping, I better take advantage of it! It felt like I was nesting like I did before giving birth, you know where you have that feeling that you'll NEVER get another chance to clean or organize! Man, I WENT TO TOWN organizing this weekend. Whew! All I can say is that the kitchen is DONE! Woot Woot!

I started with the pantry. The above picture is an AFTER picture of the pantry. We are very lucky to have a nice sized pantry to store food items and small kitchen appliances. I went through everything, looking at expiration dates, tossing and recycling, trying to find ways to make things simpler.

 

 

On the top shelf I had a bunch of shtuff(yes I meant to say shtuff and not stuff!) thrown on the top shelf. I had a canvas cube to store big hefty storage bags and some zippered bags I use when I'm grocery shopping.I wound up pulling the cube out of the pantry to make better use of the top shelf. I put the grocery bags in the trunk of my car so I have them when I go grocery shopping. I just need to remember to always put them back in the car after unloading groceries after doing the grocery shopping. I put the storage bags in the baby's closet since I use them to put clothes that have been outgrown. It's a constant cycle!

The big cardboard box is what I was using to store baby food. U-G-L-Y and it took up too much space!

 

The blue receptacle is a recycling bin and it was overflowing with paper and plastics!

 

This is after some rearranging. I grouped similar things together, nothing special.

It was way after my cat's bedtime but he hung out with me until the wee hours of the night, through all my kitchen rearranging. : ) 

I found a medium size basket to store the baby food jars. It came out of our downstairs closet. It was holding junk in the coat closet so this is a much better use and the basket doesn't take up much room.

I rearranged the canned goods, stacking them in two levels so I can see the labels.

I didn't make any huge changes but rearranged to make better use of the room and it has already made such a difference!

Decorating for Valentine's Day

Since I started this blog, I thought it would be fun to decorate "lightly" for occasions I don't normally decorate for and Valentine's Day is one of them. So here is my front door wreath for Valentine's Day! I like how simple it is and how easy it was to pull together.


It's not hearts but I like the polka dots because I could use it for Valentine's Day or Christmas! I purchased the polka dot ribbon at an after Christmas sale for a quarter. Then I bought a medium size straw wreath at Michaels for just over $1.00. Pretty sweet! 

I knew I wanted the wreath to be white so I used some latex house paint from the garage to paint the straw wreath. FREE is always nice! I painted one side and let it dry before doing the other side.

I used the glue gun to attach the ribbon when I was ready. I first wrapped the ribbon around the wreath to test the spacing before actually using the glue gun.

 

Once I got to the end, I made sure the ribbon overlapped my starting point and I cut off the excess ribbon and glued it down.

Now we have a cute wreath for Valentine's Day! It looks nice and simple!

Easy, Modern Fabric Night Light

I got sidetracked, yet again, with another little project! Today I decorated a simple night light with fabric for the baby's room! I say sidetracked because it wasn't on my list of goals for 2011 but I'll be doing this from time to time or A LOT of the time. I have covered a lamp shade in the past and LOVED how that worked out so I thought this would be fun too. I'll be sharing the lamp shade project sometime too. I've got more of these to do!

A while back I replaced most of the night lights in the house with the new LED ones so we wouldn't have to change out light bulbs as often, and just like with the Christmas LED lights, I'm just not terribly crazy about them. We've gotten used to the "outer space" kind of glow of the LED night lights, but they aren't very warm and for a baby's room, it is hard to see what you're doing in the middle of the night.


On to the night light and I warn you... there are lots of pictures! 

I picked up a plain white night light at AC Moore last weekend. They're pretty cheap, especially with a coupon. As for the fabric, I already had the fabric! It's dark brown with light blue Polka Dots! I bought it on sale a while back thinking I could use it as curtains in the baby's room when he's a little older. The walls are a bright green so this fabric should be a good contrast!

I played around with the placement of the fabric before doing anything. I didn't want the dots to line up perfectly; instead I wanted it to be casual, yet feel symmetrical as a whole.

After deciding the placement of the fabric, I flipped the shade and fabric over. Starting from left to right of the shade, I traced it, marking the fabric and rolling the shade as I went.

 

I then cut the shape out of the fabric leaving about a half inch border around my pencil marks.

I cut two slits under the metal prongs.

I stepped outside to spray the lamp shade with the spray adhesive below. 

 

Once the spray was on, I began sticking the fabric onto the shade and rubbed it, smoothing out any wrinkles or bubbles. The adhesive is tacky and if you find you need more, it's okay to spray on more.

Once I smoothed all the bumps and bubbles, I cut the edges a little more, so I had about a quarter inch edge. You may want to make sure you have a little more than that to wrap your edges though.

Lastly, I wrapped the edges and cut slits in all four corners so they would fold and stick to the shade more easily.

 

I'm happy with the results! It's a nice, clean looking night light that serves its purpose well! It is a big safety factor, not to mention it was a cheap and easy little addition to the room!

Oh yes, I washed the fabric before I used it for this project!

A Clean Microwave In Five Minutes!

Do you have a certain way of cleaning your microwave??? It may be common sense to most people but I thought I'd share what I do just in case! Everybody does things differently and it's great to learn different ways of doing things. Tonight I noticed the microwave needed to be cleaned after heating up leftover meatloaf, not to mention making bacon for breakfast over the weekend. Caked on ketchup and bacon grease!

I can't believe I am showing you the inside of our microwave. Yuck!!

This is a natural way to do it so that you're not filling your microwave of chemicals with the potential of getting chemicals in any food you might cook.

Fill a coffee cup or bowl with water, preferably a cup or bowl with a handle so you don't scald yourself. Nukiwave it for three minutes. After the timer goes off, use a clean, damp sponge or microfiber cloth and wipe clean. The steam from the hot water helps loosen the caked on food so it makes it very easy to clean! I did take the glass plate out of the microwave and hand wash it although the hot water did a great job of loosening the grime for me. I needed to wash the bottom of the plate too!

For sanitizing purposes, either squeeze a little bit of lemon juice OR put a little baking soda in your water dish before heating it up. It sanitizes and gives the microwave a fresh smell! Just remember to use caution when touching the hot dish b/c the temperature of water heated by the microwave is HOT!