Addressing the Shoe Issue

I have a real issue with shoes in my house. I can't seem to figure out a way to contain them in a way that is functional and fashionable. I have two laundry baskets in my pantry heaping full of mismatched shoes.  I'm was feeling motivated by the pictures I found on apartmenttherapy.  I thought I'd share my favorites with you.  This one is my favorite and the most practical for young children. 

This by Swedish Paint Co. Alco:

This one is Ply Architects Michigan Home and Headquarters:

This is Desire to Inspire:

This one is by Not Martha:

Cleaning Cloths

Don't you love using those sanitizing wipes that Clorox or other companies make?  I do, but I rarely remember to buy them. Today I ran across a recipe to make your own! They are all natural and so they are really safe for the kids and you can keep them for up to a week.  My hubby really likes the smell of bleach, but if you are like me and prefer a citrus scent then this is the way to go.  I found this idea on apartmenttherapy.com and they found it on bloomacious.  I have a bunch of oranges in my fridge that I don't think my family will get through so I'm going to give it a shot. Here's what you'll need:

• Old Dish Rags
• Orange
• Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• Empty Jar
  

1. Peel the skin from the orange
2. Put the peel in a bowl and mix in two cups boiling water. Let sit for a couple of minutes, till you can really smell the orange and can comfortably put your fingers in the water to twist the oils out of the peels.  Twist the pieces to extrude as much oil from the rinds as possible. Remove rinds and set one piece aside.
3. Add in 2 cups White Distilled Vinegar
4. Add a couple drops of Olive Oil.
5. Add in the rags and let them soak a couple of minutes.
6. Remove and wring cloths thoroughly-removing as much moisture as possible.
7. Fold in thirds and roll up into what should look like a finger towel and is a size that will fit easily through the mouth of your jar.
8. Add a piece of the orange rind to the jar for fragrance and store for up to a week.  You can also use the towels immediately after wringing without storing, but the orange essence won't be as strong and pleasant.

Thanks for the comment Carrie from bloomacious.  This is her recipe and she wanted to let me know that these wipes are for wood veneer furniture not for heavy duty cloroxy type jobs. Good to know!  click HERE to go to bloomacious. I apologize for not posting a link. Such a cute site BTW.

Let's Go Pink

I have had an old can of pink paint in my basement for 2 1/2 years. It hasn't even been opened. I made the mistake of buying a bunch of paint for my house while it was being built. Lowes was having an awesome sale so I just loaded up. I vow to never do something like that again. It is so much easier to decorate a house after you are actually in the house because it's easier to take into account the lighting and relation to other rooms and important details like that. I didn't use a lot of what I had purchased. At least today I was able to use a bit! I found this old side table at a thrift store and fell in love. I was pretty bummed that it was missing part of it's leg.  I was debating whether to buy it because I wasn't sure I could fake that piece. I opened up the drawer to test the glides and to my surprise...I found the missing piece! After some glue and clamp action I was ready to sand and paint.  I decided to do the pink thing.  I was wanting to try something I'd seen in a magazine that someone did with their kitchen cabinets. They painted the base coat and then just free-handed some white around the edges. It looked really cute so I thought I would try it out on something small and inexpensive.  I like how this little piece turned out, but I'm not sure I would feel comfortable attempting it on a large scale project just yet.  Maybe if I had better detail brushes.  

Happy Birthday to ME!

My hubby's grandparents sent me $10 for my b-day today so I wanted to find a project for my house! I abandoned the heaping pile of laundry and went thrift store shopping even though the roads were completely horrible. I started getting nervous that I wouldn't be back in time to get my son to school. It would have been a good day to stay inside, but I don't want to sit at home on my b-day. I'm so glad I braved the cold because I found this beauty for $10!! Perfect!! I got home and started painting right away. Well, right after I fed the kids and took them to school.  I just barely had enough white paint, but that's ok because I wanted a really distressed look anyway. The kind of look where the paint is actually peeling away instead of sanded down.  The way to do that is to be a lazy painter.  Don't sand down the original paint, don't wait for the paint to dry in between coats and don't wait until it's dry to sand it.  The paint really peels off well.  I brushed polyurethane stain over the top after I had sanded the edges.  I think I'm going to love having this shelf in my entry way. I'll post a picture after I come up with something to decorate it with!  

Inexpensive Bathroom Facelift

My bathroom needed a major facelift.  It's really been a boring room.

 Since I don't really have the funds to renovate something spectacular I decided to spend $6 on some clearance wallpaper.

  I made a peg board to use for towels and robes and another little one for hand towels.  I put up some crown moulding we had lying around in the basement and added a little seating area with magazines. An old shelf that we had fit well over the doorframe and I bought the candle holder at D.I. for $2.  I decided to hang the magnet board that I had for sale on Poppy Ginger because it matched so well.  I'll buy some magnetic hooks and hang my necklaces.  O.K. so I really only have one necklace, but maybe when my kids are older and not trying to strangle me I'll get more. It's always nice to be prepared right?? I thought it was a success just because my hubby doesn't hate it-which I was almost certain he would because he can't stand wallpaper.  I'm contemplating painting the cabinets white and buying a cushy white bathroom rug....I should also clean the tub, but where is the fun in that?? I'd also like to welcome Brittany as a follower. Thanks for the nice comments and feel free to send me any fun ideas that you have as well.  

Fun with stars

Jodi sent me this idea that she found. So sweet of her.  It's a metal star that has been cutely papered and glazed.  I can't wait to try it. Kathy made an incredible quilt that resembles one of her doodles and it is completely out of different black and white prints. I have been wanting to try something in a bunch of different black and white patterns because it looks so incredibly cute. I think I might have to try it on a star sometime! Thanks Jodi for sending us this idea!!

Wall Art

I have this big dark space in my family room. My hubby absolutely loves the dark brown wall. I sometimes feel it's a little too dark and wanted to add something white there to brighten things up a bit.  I've been considering making some white frames and hanging them. I almost started that project this morning when I came across a big white door that I had bought for this exact space. I completely forgot about it! Yahoo!! I don't have to make frames today!! I found this door at IKEA. For those of you who don't know IKEA has an "as is" section right before you check out of the store. They often sell doors and big pieces of wood for practically nothing. I bought this door for $3.  I liked that it took up a lot of room on the wall and the white did help, but it still looked lacking. I tried a wreath in the center. An improvement, but it still needed something. I decided to stick some little mirrors that I had mod podged paper on a few months ago.  I just taped them on the door. I'll leave them there for now to see if I still like them there this afternoon.  I might hang them with twine just so I can change decorations easily.  Fun!! 

Operation:Laundry Room

Operation laundry room main objectives:

1. Increase functionality.

2. Increase cuteness.

3. Do it without spending any money.

I can't say that I really have a "room" for my laundry. It is the hallway between the garage and the kitchen. It has always needed some TLC, but it hasn't really been a priority.  Kathy gave me some upper cabinets that were in her basement so that was the push I needed to get something done in there.  Here is the beautiful before shot: 

 Nice eh?  I tried to create a different design for a shelf one day and I really didn't like the way it turned out, but I figured at least it would give me a place to put all of my laundry junk.  It always looks like chaos in there so I welcomed the cabinets that Kathy gave to us just so I could have some doors to hide all of the cleaning supplies/gardening supplies/laundry soap/everything else that doesn't really have a place.  

I decided to go with a brown color scheme because of one major factor: I already have all of the paint I need.  I painted the cabinets a dark chocolate and changed the hardware. I choose simple silver knobs for one reason: I already had them.  I painted the wall a lighter brown and since the cabinets are heavier on one side and don't fill up the entire space, I decided to paint some stripes and add some vinyl lettering to try and even it out.  Here is the after shot:

  I'm hoping that the improvements will encourage me to do my laundry more often. I'm not counting on it, but I am happy with the end result. Mission accomplished!

Polka Dots

I found a really great side table that I am refurbishing to sell on Poppy Ginger. I'm putting polka dot paper on the inside of the drawers and I was trying to figure out a way to get nice dots on the outside of the drawers as well. I found something that worked wonderfully! Since I have to wait for the paint to dry before I can do the inside of the drawers I thought I'd take a minute and share this idea with you. Have you ever seen these circle stickers? I bought them when Pebbles in My Pocket was having a mass sale and I got a few for 10 cents each.  I decided to peel the edge on the outside of the sticker and use it as a stencil.  After placing it on the drawer front I painted a thin red coat to seal it so it would be less likely to leak.  I painted the white and pealed away.  There was still a tiny bit of leakage so I just took a toothpick and smoothed out the edges.  I love how it turned out!!

Magnet Board Fever

My Sis-in-law Sarah and I had both decided to make magnet boards for our kids for Christmas. She actually finished hers before Christmas while sadly mine is still sitting in the wood shop without a frame.  Sarah used Mod Podge to line her frame with fabric(I had no idea Mod Podge worked with fabric! Way cool!).  It turned out so cute. I would post a pic, but I haven't asked her permission yet.  I was getting antsy this morning(not to be confused with ansy which I found out this morning was another word for horny((glad I looked that one up)).  My kids are home sick and I was in the mood to make something.  I have an old magnet board that used to be in my kitchen and so I decided to spice it up a bit.  I painted pink stripes and then added alphabet stickers to the top and glued a wooden flower to the bottom.  Sarah and I were debating whether to cover our magnet boards with fabric. It's a cute look, but you have to use stronger magnets and you may not be able to focus on the pictures the kids are hanging up.  Since this was kind of a trial run magnet board I decided to cover it.  A word of caution: after I covered the sheet metal with fabric it was VERY difficult to get it to fit back in the frame. I would suggest a thin fabric if you are buying a magnet board from the store.  I just taped the fabric tightly on the back. It seems to be holding well.  I bought the cute circle boxes in the kitchen department at IKEA. The backs have a very strong magnet so they hold tightly.  I just cut out cute paper and put stickers to label them.  I think it will be fun for the kids to keep little nicknacks like movie stubs and such.  Hopefully this will hold me over until we actually get our bigger one built! Thanks for the motivation Sarah!!

Decorating basics

I love to learn about interior design. Since I am not able to go to school right now(which I would love to do), I just try and soak up things from books and magazines and from all the talented people I am surrounded by.  Here are some of my favorite decorating tips that I use frequently:

*When you are decorating a shelf use odd numbers. I prefer 5 but it really depends on the shelf.

*Using some sort of foliage behind your decorations really brings everything together.

*When you are trying to decide which colors to use in a room, decide what type of a feel you would like the room to have. Colors really set the mood.  Pick 3 colors that you would like to use as your color scheme. You can have accents pieces with different shades of the colors you choose. The colors opposite of each other on the color wheel really compliment each other well.  That works for me because red and green are by far my favorite colors to decorate with.

*If you are hanging a picture over a couch make sure it is size appropriate. If the picture appears too small, you can create a collage to beef up the decor.  Also pay attention to how high you are hanging things. Hang them at a comfortable eye level.  

*When you decide to paint a wall a very bold color use LOTS of white accents and also add something black to ground it.  

*Decorate in triangles. It is more pleasing to the eye. 

*When making a collage I like to use things that have different shapes and dimension. 

*Use what you've already got. Decorating doesn't have to be expensive. Almost everything I put up costs less than $10.  You can even use paint to add a fun touch to small spaces.

*Don't be afraid to be bold and try something new! It is so much fun to see how many different personalities a home can have.  I guess that's why I love to paint so much. It's a relatively inexpensive way to give your home a fresh new look! Happy decorating!!

Seasonal word blocks

I finally got around to making the seasonal word blocks that I posted about a little while ago.  I painted mine brown and made a couple of them plaid just for fun. I'm not really convinced that was a good idea, because it makes it harder to see what some of the letters are. I didn't actually try and confirm that I could make all 16 words. Hopefully I did it correctly because they are a gift. I think it was a fun and very inexpensive gift. We bought a 4x4 piece of wood for $5.98 and my hubby was able to make the vinyl lettering. I made two sets for $6!!

Happy New Year!!

There is something so refreshing about January 1st.  It really isn't any different than December 31st, but it always exciting for me. I feel like I can make new goals and have another chance to become the person that I would ultimately like to be. As I was trying to think of ways that I can improve over this next year I thought about really treasuring the times that I have with my children. I want to make the holidays throughout the year special for them and give them distinct memories that they will be able to hold on to. There are so many areas in which I would like to improve. I hope that as I work on my goals I will be able to somehow involve my children. As I grow spiritually I would like to give them the basic fundamentals of faith love and charity that I know will benefit them immensely. As I work on my physical goals I hope to involve them in such a way that they can understand the importance of living a healthy lifestyles and take advantage of these wonderful bodies we've been given. I would like to educate myself and give them an example of the importance of constant learning and mental development. Most of all I would like to create a home of tranquility and virtue. A resting place for my children. A safe haven from this crazy world we live in.  I want to yell less and cherish more.  I love to create and decorate, but I also would like to remember that what happens within the walls of my home is way more important than what happens on the walls. I hope you all have a wonderful year and enjoy this wonderful life!!

(Picture from Better Homes and Gardens via theinspiredroom.net)