A Basket Case - A Basket From My Mom's Garage!

How is it going? Happy Friday! Hope you had a great week! It's been a really busy week here. Well I say busy but my pace has slowed down a lot. I have a lot of projects I am working on but I am taking my time to stay focused and do one at a time. If you've read any of my posts before, you know I am all over the place with projects. Currently I am working on a BIG outdoor project and there is a learning curve plus I can have to have good weather to work on it. Today we had a little rain so I got a much needed break! That project will be coming soon! 

 

So here's a basket I scored from my mom and dad's garage! My mom and I share a love for baskets. She has a ton that she used to display in her kitchen but isn't using all of them anymore so I got to take my pick!   

 

I picked thiiiiiis one because it had cool wooden handles and a nice round shape to it.
I got it home and immediately found a place for it! I put it in the reading nook in the bay window of the dining room. Of course the reading nook is mostly used by the cat right now. I might paint it but just haven't quite decided. What do you think? Should I paint it or leave it?!?!?!

 

 

 

Installing DIY No Soliciting Sign On Brick

Good morning and HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Hope it's been a good week. Here it has been great. I can hardly walk today but it's for good reason. The past two days I've spent cleaning and prepping our wooden privacy fence so that I can stain it next week. I did the inside Wednesday and the outside yesterday. Being outside so much has been wonderful. Hope you get to spend some time outdoors this weekend!

 

So I wanted to follow up with the No Soliciting sign I made. We have a brick façade and I had never hung anything on brick before so I took some time to research to find the best approach. I found brick clips but wasn't sure how stable one would be. I ended up purchasing a hook that is made just for hanging on brick. I got it at Lowes and it was brass but I painted it with a good old Black Rustoleum paint so it would match the front light fixtures.

 

Anyhow the hook came with two screws and a drill bit especially for drilling into mortar. It was surprisingly easy! The mortar was actually pretty soft to drill into once I got the hole started. So here it is!

 

 

I have noticed that I haven't had anyone ringing the doorbell since I hung it up. Not sure if it's coincidence or the sign but I hope it doesn't offend anyone and simply does the job! Have a great Friday!

Spring Is In The Air!

YESSS! It is so nice out today! Lately it has been a bit on the yucky side and cold on this end. How's it going? I'm sorry I've been MIA but for the past week I was out of town working with my dad and grandfather on my parents' house. What an awesome experience it was to work on big house projects alongside of my dad and grandfather. I learned so much! I learned how to drive my dad's riding lawn mower and how to take down gutters, replace wood and rehang gutters. I learned how to apply mortar and then grind it down and I did lots of sanding and painting and cleaning of fencing. It was great! Now that I am home again I have some projects staring me in the face in my own house. For today I just wanted to share a small touch of Spring decorating for the season! I love Springtime! Do you have any Spring decorations you put out this time of year? Hope you had a great Easter! Have a great day!

April Showers Bring May Flowers - Umbrella Door Decor!

TGIF! Happy Friday to you! What have you been up to? Have you done any decorating or updating lately? The weather here has been gorgeous this week and I have to admit that is one perk of being home with my kids. When it's nice, we are outside! Between yesterday and today I've spent most of the days out doing yard work. Six bales of pine needles spread, five bags of leaves raked and lots of sticks picked up by the trash today. Flower bed weeded! It's been productive to say the least and the kids had a ball playing with water guns and soccer balls!

So onto my latest little project... It's an umbrella bouquet for the front door! I found it on Random Thoughts!

I found an adorable teal umbrella for cheap (to contrast with the navy blue door) online and flowers from Michaels half off, plus two coupons and ribbon I already had to boot! Simple enough, it just gets a little smashed when the storm door is closed. It's okay though cause when you open the door front door with the storm door closed we get to enjoy the arrangement on the inside of the house. :) 

This project is so simple and fitting for this time of year. My mom did one for her door too. She has a yellow or hunter green front door and got a light green umbrella with a wooden handle and pink toned flowers. Beautiful too. Wish I had taken a picture because I had it hanging on my door last weekend!

A little smashed but that's okay :)

I'd love to hear what your last decorating project was!  Have a great Friday!

Duct Tape Hanger Post RENIG!

Oh so I must update my blog and let you know what happened with the duct tape hanger on the back of the spoon mirror! Well, we were sleeping one night last week, the night after I hung the mirror on the wall, annnnnndddddd our burglar alarm went off scaring the mess out of my husband and me. We have NEVER had this happen before where it went off and it wasn't one of us setting it off accidentally. We checked the kids and ran downstairs to find the spoon mirror on the floor with a hand full of spoons scattered on the hardwoods. The duct tape hanger did not work! Knowing how strong duct tape is, I know it would work in some way to hold the mirror on the wall but this was a BIG FAT NO! It probably had to do with the positioning of the tape. The mirror fell on the floor setting off the glass breaks on the windows, which set the burglar alarm off. NICE. So now my hubs kinda dislikes the mirror a WHOLE lot! Anyhow I glued the spoons back on and went to Michaels where I bought a large plate holder. AWESOMENESS! It fit the back side and it works! It is WAY BETTER. So if you decide to make one of these, be sure to hang it with a PLATE HANGER! Hope your day is a good one! The temps here are absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to get outside today!  

Finally Hung My Flower Mirror!

YAY! One more little project I can knock off of my to do list! I FINALLY hung my Flower Mirror up! I LOVE it! I got my mom's opinion on where to hang it and that helped so much! Sometimes it takes another person to say YAY or NAY to something! Have you ever used duct tape to hang something? I hadn't but since this was homemade and also delicate, I used duct tape as an easy remedy. I didn't have to glue or hammer anything into the back of this and it seems to support the weight of the mirror. 

Instead of using a wire as the hanger, I rolled a long piece of duct tape and taped it down with a lot of long strands of tape. I figure if Myth Busters can use tape to survive on a deserted island, then this should work to support a wall hanging. No one is going to see the back of it anyway! Happy DAY!

I Heart "To Do" Lists!

TGIF! Hope you have a great day!

 

Do YOU like "To Do" lists? Do you make "To Do" lists? I do and I LOVE them! They help me get things done and I love the feeling of marking things off my list! Such a great feeling of accomplishment! It's not for everyone but for me it's a great organizational tool!

 

So what is on your to do list for today? I got a good workout in this morning so now it's time to focus on getting some things done around here. I have a loooong list of things to do. I've also been working on a lot of little décor projects around the house that I'll be sharing real soon! Until then take it easy! Lots of exclamation points!!!! :) Happy Friday!

DIY Curtain Measurement Fail!

 

Haha! Sometimes you have to laugh! This is the Ultimate DIY Curtain Measurement FAIL! I think that is what happens when I try to stay up late to work on a project. The rings aren't spaced correctly and the curtain needs more curtain!  

 

As soon as I redo this one I will tell you how I did it. Right now I can see a glimpse of CUTE but it's not exactly CUTE. Luckily I have more fabric to work with so I will share when it is complete!

 

 

 

Organizing and Labeling Toys

Happy Tuesday! Hope you had a great Monday and a great St. Patrick's Day! I'm surprised my oldest didn't get pinched yesterday because I totally forgot to dress him in green! Way to go, Mom, huh!

So in cleaning up and organizing children's rooms and toys, I found this number at Tarjay (several months back might I add) and I found these adhesive chalkboard labels at Michaels last week. I was going to use my Cricut and make my own tag type labels but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that was overkill. The boy can read now so I didn't need to go overboard with tagged pictures on basket handles. He can read and write so I thought chalkboard labels would work great. I found them in the cheap-o section at the front of the store and they were 40% off so they were a buck something for a pack of 12 labels. Not too shabby. At first my son wrote the categories of the labels but then didn't like his handwriting and asked me to do it. He said he couldn't read his own handwriting. Uggh! Haha!

I think these labels work out great because they aren't in the way of the handles, you can see them and they can be changed with any new toy switch out we have! Below is the organizational system from Tarjay AKA Target! It works great and the kids can easily pick up after themselves with this shelving system! How do you organize the toys in your house?  

Urge To Purge

I am seriously in PURGE mode! Do you ever get this way? Hope this finds you well. I am in total "Spring cleaning/wanna get everything in order and cleaned up" MODE! This means I'm going through EVERYTHING and getting rid of things we don't need or use. 

I have been reading a lot on minimalism and I would LOVE to be able to live a more minimalistic (did I make a new word???) lifestyle. I am tired of the clutter and chaos STUFF causes. It's not worth it! I find that extra gadgets and things are just not worth it. If it's not necessary or we don't LOVE something or use something, it's going. This week was been freeing in a lot of ways. I dropped off a FULL car load of children's clothing and toys off at church to sell and it was well worth it this time. Most of it sold. I priced everything fairly low and it really did the trick. I have had those experiences though where I said I would NEVER do another consignment sale because it was too much work for too little profit. This time I am happy to say was different! 

So there are piles everywhere. Well in two rooms anyway. I've got a pile of projects to work on and a pile of things to sell. It's getting better though. I've got another trunk load of bags to drop at Good Will this week but want to add to it before going. I've gone through closets, drawers, cabinets... I have just about gone through most everything in the house and piled up things to donate or sell. As for selling, we have another garage sale coming up soon so I am piling up items for that too. Organized purging! It's so freeing! How about you? Do you go through purging phases? Hope you have a great rest of the weekend!