It's that time of year when many of you are starting to work on your spring cleaning lists. I recently took an unscientific poll of my friends to gather up some of their most dreaded chores around the house. Boy did they have some tough ones! Lucky for you and for them, I've rounded up all the solutions here in one place.
It's been such a busy past few weeks! We had my sister's first baby shower, followed by my mother-in-law's birthday party, then the second baby shower. I've spent a lot of time over at my sister's house helping her sort through all the baby goodies and get them organized and put away. So much to do before a baby gets here! I really had no idea! I will get more posts up about all those fun happenings soon.
I actually had a bit of time to do a project around my house, which was a nice break from all the running around.
Confession - I had my Valentine's Day wreath up until about mid-March and realized that I should put up my St. Patrick's Day wreath. The only reason it got taken down is because we had a huge wind storm and the bells on the wreath were driving me crazy banging against the door. I decided this time instead of making an Easter wreath that may end up getting left up until Fourth of July, I would make a nice spring wreath.
We recently threw my mother-in-law a big 50th birthday party. My sister-in-law enlisted my help to do the party decorations. That's part of where I have been lately, among the many other projects going on.
My mother-in-law was expecting a big over-the-hill party. Instead we decided to surprise her with a classier theme. Her favorite color is purple, so we settled on a purple and black themed party. We spent a lot of time browsing party decor online and didn't really like the stuff we were seeing in the stores. When we searched for party supplies for adults, we just couldn't find anything that fit our party plan. Most of it was for over-the-hill parties or just too tacky.
Spring is in the air around here and everyone I know is having babies. I have been a busy bee making all sorts of things for little ones. I think baby gifts are one of my most favorite gifts to make because they are so cute!
A couple of our best friends just recently had their first boy and I wanted to make them something bright and fun for him. I remembered The *Easy* Baby Blanket I had made awhile back and thought that something like it could be the perfect gift, so it was off to the craft room once again.
This time I decided to jazz it up a bit and make a 4 patch blanket. It is just as easy as the original and sews up so quickly!
For awhile now I have been very frustrated with the look of my car's headlights. Not to mention the fact that it makes it very difficult to see at night. They were completely yellow and fogged over. I was about at the point where I thought I needed new ones.
I can't take all the credit or in fact any of the credit on finding this incredible trick. My good friend Carol posted on Facebook about this neat trick and as soon as I read it, I went running to the garage to give it a try. I figured that it couldn't make them any worse and I had everything on hand.
Supplies Needed:
Clean rag or two
Toothpaste (the original post recommended Colgate but I used what I had on hand)
Not pictured - bowl of water
The craft room makeover is finally finished! Whew! It's been quite a month and I'm so happy with the way it has turned out. You may remember that I decided to organize my craft room/office since it was one of my projects to
complete on my 30 Before 30 list. This room was in major need of a
renovation as you can see from the before pictures. Since this room is both the craft room and the office it needs to be a very functional space.
My nephew's girlfriend Jennie came over and made an amazing video of the completed room for me. She is so talented and I love the video she made of the room. I felt that pictures alone couldn't give the full affect of the transformation that took place in here, so here is the completed room tour:
I took this project on as part of the 29 Day Organizational Challenge at I'm an Organizing Junkie. It's funny because I had been living with the chaos of the room for so long I had sort of gotten used to it. But once I decided to start organizing, I really got going and couldn't stand it anymore.
The steps I took to get started: I made lists of things to work on and projects that needed to be completed. I like making lists because it keeps me goal oriented and I can see the progress as I check things off. Then seeing the before pictures and looking at the progress I was making really kept me motivated. I also had my sister come over and help me. We did an entire day of cleaning and organizing. It was great having her here because it kept me from getting distracted by all the little things.
The hardest part of the challenge was deciding what was really worth keeping. Of course I felt like I loved everything in here as I came across it or had the thought that it could be useful. I kept having to remind myself that if I hadn't used it recently that I probably wasn't going to anytime soon. Once I saw how much space I was creating, I started feeling better about the purge.
One of my biggest purges was fabric. Luckily my sister-in-law Cassidee is planning a project for her Gold Award in Girl Scouts that will need a lot of fabric, so I sorted through and pulled out everything I thought she could use. I also had a huge drawer of scraps and another bag under my desk. I went through all of that and narrowed it down to a small drawer of useable scraps. I also purged a lot of the decor in here. Most of that ended up going to my sister because it just happens to match her house. I really wanted to try and have the place not look like it was the room of "leftovers." The rest of the stuff I purged went into a pile to donate to Goodwill.
The best part of the whole challenge came just a few days ago when my husband was doing some work from home and I was working on some sewing. We were both in here, spread out in our areas and not in each others way at all. The most amazing thing was that there was still plenty of room to walk around too! The room is completely functional for us now and that was the main thing I set out to accomplish.
One of the best finds in organizing the room was the 4-tier shelf I got from Lowe's. It was only $15! It fit perfectly in the closet and allowed for so much more storage space. I used a bunch of dollar store shoe boxes to organize my craft odds and ends. My sister Aspen came up with the idea for the cute labels that we put on them. I made them all with my Silhouette and the designs all came from their online store. I also got a new file box for my coupons. The old one had a broken lid so it wasn't very functional. All the couponing stuff is on one shelf and should stay nice and organized. I also know exactly what is in each box now, which makes it so much easier to find everything.
Another great find was the Closetmaid rack I used for the ribbon and paint on my wall. It's original purpose is for canned goods in the pantry but it's the perfect size for all my ribbon. I don't have to search through totes and boxes to find everything anymore. And as luck would have it, I had a bunch of mason jars that my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas and found that they were the perfect thing to sort all the buttons and embellishments into. My buttons are all sorted by color now which is so awesome!
The boxes on the shelf that hold my Silhouette and scrapbooking supplies came from Ikea and really help contain everything so that I can find it. Before they were all mixed together in a big under-bed box. Everything would get lost in the big box and I never really knew what was in there. I found out that I had 3 boxes of photo corners. The funny thing is that I can't even remember the last time I used photo corners. The pots under the shelf that hold my scissors and paintbrushes also came from Ikea. I seriously love that store! They need to build one by me so I don't always have to drive to LA every time I think of something great I need. I found it so helpful to have the painting stuff accessible the other day when I went to paint something and I could see all the brushes I have as opposed to the mess of Ziploc bags they were in before.
The best thing I did in the room was rearranging the furniture. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner but it is so much nicer in here. With the new layout, there is an "office side" of the room and a "craft side" of the room. Everything I need is in it's own area and very organized on top of that.
Overall the biggest thing I've learned from this is not to buy more craft supplies than I need for the project I'm working on. I have so much stuff - mostly fabric - that I bought just because it was on sale. Most of it will probably never get used and ended up going in a donate pile. If I can keep that in mind in the future, I know that it will be a lot easier to maintain this room.
The greatest piece of advice I can give you in tackling an organizing
project of your own is that you NEED to get rid of things. If you
haven't used something recently, it needs to go. If it's not functional,
it must go. If it's not your style, let it go. The thing is that if you
decide a year from now you want it again, there will probably be
something better available. It's not worth the clutter to hang on to
things because it might be useful.
After spending a couple hours out shopping with my one year old nephew, I realized that babies go through a TON of socks! He would go into the store with two socks and inevitably by the time we left there would be one lonely sock on his foot.
I realized that the perfect gift for his first birthday would be some baby socks. I mean the more he has the better, right?! Especially since he seems to be constantly losing them.
I didn't want to just throw a bunch of socks in the bag and call it good either because that just didn't seem fun. So I came up with the "Cozy Caterpillar" baby socks gift. It's super cute and easy to make!
Ingredients: About a dozen baby socks (boy or girl) 1 pipe cleaner 2 mini pop-poms 2 buttons Green shredded paper Note: I have double stick tape pictured but I found that Elmer's glue dots
worked better for part of it, so I ended up using both Not pictured: Container to put it in (I used a cookie tin)
Step 1: Take one of the baby socks and roll it up as seen in the picture.
Step 2: Take the first baby sock and put it down inside the foot of the matching sock.
Step 3: Starting at the opening of the sock, roll it around the foot so that you end up making a ball.
Step 4: Do this with all the remaining socks. Then decide which pattern
you would like your caterpillar to have. There was only one red sock
with mine, so I made that the head.
Step 5: Cut 2 pieces of pipe cleaner, each about 3 inches long. Wrap the
bottoms together to form a "V." Bend the base of the "V" and attach it
to the top of the head with the glue dots. Using the glue dots again,
attach the pom-poms to the tops of the pipe cleaners and then attach the
eyes. You can see why I changed it and went with the glue dots instead.
The tape just looks messy!
Step 6: Place a piece of double stick tape on the bottom of each sock and attach them to your container. The double stick tape worked perfectly for this. I made a zig-zag pattern with the socks. First, to get them all to fit and second because I thought it was cute and wiggly.
Step 7: Finish by filling in around your caterpillar with your paper shreds. I made mine by running 2 different colors of green paper through my shredder.
There you have it! A cute and fun way to give baby socks!
There are a lot of really cute family name art pieces out there. I've even made a few for around our house. But the latest project I have been working on had me a bit puzzled. What kind of family art do you create for a "modern family" who may not all share the same last name?
Being the Shakespeare lover that I am (and having just recently watched the movie) the famous Juliet quote popped into my head:
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet. ( Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Sc. 2, 43-47)
Being a family doesn't mean that you all have to have the same family name, what matters is that you are family. After a little bit scribbling and a whole, whole lot of erasing on my scratch pad, I finally settled on this design.
I made the lettering with my Silhouette and I used the LDJ Forever Friends font. The "Our Family" is available in the Silhouette online store. The vinyl is from Expressions Vinyl in light brown. Expressions Vinyl is one of my favorite places to shop for vinyl. They always have good discount codes for their email subscribers and Facebook friends.
I really love how it turned out because the names are all connected - like a family is! It's perfect because all of the people I know with modern families can now have name art too!
My roommate's birthday was a few weeks back. I already had part of the gift planned - some really cool Stila eyeshadow and a few other make-up things, which I love and knew she would too. But I wanted to do something a bit more personal since she's so dear to me.
I came across this darling Subway art over at Kiki & Company. It was just the thing I was looking for!
Side note - so my friends and I always call patterns for projects "recipes" and I've had a hard time not doing that lately but I just can't help it! So...
Remove the glass (or in my case plastic) from the frame. Prime frame with 2 coats of white
paint. Let dry thoroughly in between layers. Then paint 2 coats of your desired color (also drying well between layers) and let
dry.
When it is completely dry, spray the entire frame with the Krylon Triple Thick
Crystal Clear Glaze. Be sure to do this in a well ventilated area like outside
(my roommates always gets mad when I do this in the house). Let the frame dry really
well before handling again - ask how I know about that!
Step 2:
While that is drying, you can pick out your Subway Art for the frame. Like I mentioned, mine came from Kiki & Company. You can also do a search for
"Free Subway Art" on Google for more ideas.
Funny thing was that I was trying to use the red and teal design on Kiki Creates. I didn't realize until it printed that my printer was out of magenta ink. Luckily, I
love the way it turned out. To make it fit in my frame, I scaled it down to
size in Photoshop and printed from there. I printed it on white cardstock to help the colors really stand out and make it sturdier.
Step 3:
This is my favorite part of any project - embellishing! I
chose to make some 3D flowers and leaves with the colored cardstock. I love it because it is two-sided! I used my Silhouette to cut them and then glued
them to the frame with the craft glue. You can find some ideas to make handmade flowers on my Favorite Flower Tutorials Round-up.
The best part of this project is that you can decide how
you embellish the frame. You can use ribbons, buttons,
stickers or vinyl cut outs. Personalize it and make it your own.
It turned out perfectly and she loved it! The best part of giving it to her was that I could finally take the sign off the craft room door warning her to stay out!
I'm sure you've all seen those commercials for things like the Lint Lizard or wands that promise to clean out all that lint trapped deep within the dryer vent. Well being the frugal cheap person that I am, I figured I could come up with some way to clean all that out without having to purchase yet another thing from an infomercial. Side note - I have just about been banned from watching infomercials because I will buy almost any cool thing I see on TV!
This project started because we found out that we have an electric dryer in this new place. If you don't have one, don't get one! They are ridiculously expensive to run compare to gas dryers. I've been searching for tips and tricks to help it operate more efficiently and found that if I cleaned the lint trap (which apparently is also a big cause of dryer fires) it might help it run better.
The wheels in my head got spinning!
You will need a wire hanger, Swiffer dry cloths, and painters tape (or another good and sticky tape).
Straighten out the wire hanger. Then lay the cloth lengthwise along the bottom of the hanger. Secure both ends really well with the tape.
Remove the lint trap and use the wand to clean down inside the lint duct. It will get out all kinds of crud that you had no idea was in there!
Nice and dirty Swiffer cloth that I just took off and threw away. Let's hope this helps the dryer run a bit better now!
My younger sister-in-law is on her high school ASB or Student Body. They have to dress up for about every holiday and school function and when she came over to work on her Valentines to give to her friends, we decided to come up with something custom to wear for Valentine's Day.
This shirt was not our original plan however! We had planned on making the Rufflicious Top over at Polkadots on Parade. I made one the other day for my neighbor's daughter and it turned out beautifully.
We were joking around about Valentine's Day not being so much fun for her because her boyfriend had just broken up with her and so, the Cupid Valentine's Day Top was born:
Supplies needed:
1 t-shirt
freezer paper
iron
sponge brush or paint brush
cardboard or something to layer under the shirt
fabric paint (I used acrylic paint because that's all I had on hand)
To do this with the Silhouette: Tear off a piece of freezer paper the same size as the cutting mat and lay it shiny side down on the mat. I used the LD Hearts font and a cupid from the Silhouette store. Then cut the design with the "Print Paper" setting.
You can also trace a design on freezer paper by hand with an X-acto knife.
To get the stencil, peel the outside of the design off the mat. This is what you will be using. You will also need any of the small pieces such as the inside of the arrow and the hearts inside the letters. The design may curl some, but if you peel the mat away from the template rather than peeling the template off this should help it not curl so much.
Place this centered on the front of the shirt.
I always like to use a press cloth to avoid having things stick to the iron. You can also use a piece of muslin or cotton fabric if you don't have a press cloth.
Set the iron to the highest setting the fabric will allow without steam. Lay the cloth very carefully over your design and press the iron slowly over the whole design. Work carefully so you can adjust the small pieces if they happen to shift at all. I like to go over it several times to make sure that the freezer paper is adhered very well.
Your freezer paper should be stuck to the shirt like a sticker. Then place a piece of cardboard or something thick between the layers of the shirt to prevent the paint from bleeding through to the back.
Now you can use your fabric paint or acrylic paint (it might fade or be stiffer than fabric paint) and fill in your template.
Fill it in slowly to avoid big globs of paint. I did two thin layers and let them dry well in between.Then let it dry really well after the last layer of paint. I cheated and got out the heat gun since my sister-in-law was going to be taking it home soon.
When it is completely dry, peel off the stencil and you will have a totally custom Valentine's Day shirt!
I think I signed myself up to be the permanent shirt maker for all her school functions!
I've been busy working on the craft room this week for the challenge at I'm an Organizing Junkie and haven't had much chance to post anything. I will get caught back up this weekend! I've made some definite progress this week though and it is coming along nicely.
You may remember how it started out:
You almost couldn't see the carpet in here!
There is a big improvement on that! I spent most of this week rearranging furniture to give the room a better flow. Before everything was spread all over the room and it was pretty much chaos. When I moved in, I pretty much just put things wherever I thought they would fit. Well now I've got a plan!
I rearranged the room so that the back half is office space and the front half is craft space. Much more functional!
The tough part is that my organizing process involves pulling everything out so that I can see clearly what I've got to work with. I feel kind of bad really, really bad for everyone I live with that I work this way!
This is what they have to deal with in the hallway while I'm working on organizing:
Hopefully for their sake, I can get the hall cleared out quickly! The doors on the right are the access to the washer and dryer!
