Spice Organization

After many failed attempts to organize our spice cabinet, I finally had one last idea to try.  And if this didn't work, well then I was about ready to throw in the towel!  Our Spice cabinet was a mess.  All different size containers, multiple containers of the same spice (all half used of course), and not to mention the spices we bought in bulk that were still in their plastic baggies from the grocery store.

So, one day, while at Wal-Mart, I found these awesome little jars.

  

They come in a set of 4.  So naturally I cleaned out that Wal-Mart and bought 4 packs of them giving me 16 jars.  While there, I also picked up some chalkboard paint.

Since these jars were technically canning jars, the inside of the lid separated from the outer ring.  So I took off all of the lids, and separated out the middle section of the lid.  Then I painted all of the middle pieces with the chalkboard paint.  I did about 3 coats, waiting about a day in between each coat.

Once they were all dry, I hot glued the outer ring, to the middle piece of the lid.  I didn't want to have to keep dealing with two pieces of the lid every time I wanted a spice!  

And finally, I used a chalk pen (from Michaels in the Bridal section) to write the names of the spices on the jars.  I still need a few more jars to fill the drawer, but this seems to be a vast improvement over our previous  "system" if you can even call it that.  Finally I emptied our spices into the new jars, and voila!

This way we can see where all of the spices are, and we don't have to empty half of the cabinet to find the one we want!  These jars are also plenty wide enough to fit measuring spoons in there for recipes, and just as easy to get out a "pinch" of something to season with.  We love the new system, and it was totally worth finding a new home for our dish towels.

Picture Wall

Browsing through Pinterest a while back, I came across this Pin.  And I LOVED it!!  It dresses up the wall so much and is such an awesome way to display pictures.  We love having pictures of family, but eventually, we ran out of space to put them.  There are only so many tables, and shelves to put frames on.  So I loved that this idea consolidated all of the memories into one location.  Here's a picture of the idea on pinterest:

I chose to make mine a little more "eclectic" and not  have matching frames for now.  But the lovely thing about this, is that at any time, I could go get or create some matching frames for the existing pictures and layout, and it would totally change the look!  Very versatile.  Our wall is not quite done  yet as I ran out of frames.  But I also plan to put up a similar vinyl decal in the center with some sort of quote about family and friends and memories.

But here is the beginnings of our picture wall.

I didn't really lay anything out before I started.  I just started putting holes in the wall.  I would hold up a frame and move it around a little before I set the nail, but I did not have a grand scheme design before I started.  I went with random :)  I didn't want it to look too planned. Let me know what you think!  And quote suggestions are always welcome :)

Backyard Update

As many of you know, we are in the middle of our never ending backyard/back patio project.  You can see the progression of it all here and here.  We finally go the sand spread out over the gravel.  And now, as you can see, our patio looked strikingly similar to a sand volleyball court minus the net.

  The dogs loved it!  So much softer than the gravel.  I however, was not a huge fan.  With the doggie door, there was no possible way the sand was going to stay outside.  But, I digress...the sand was only their a couple of weeks before we finally got the pavers delivered (approximately 1100 regular pavers, and 100 edge piece pavers).  We won't mention the fact that Home Depot messed up the delivery date and we actually got the pavers the day before we left on vacation...But, I digress again.

Once we got back, we leveled out the sand as best we could, and got to work laying the pavers.

They have an interlocking design which makes them fairly easy to line up.

  But, those suckers were heavy, and it was a long 3 day weekend.  I am definitely pleased with the progress.  The hubs is slightly more of a perfectionist when it comes to this kind of thing, so he's less pleased, but still happy that things are moving.  I'm just happy that the dogs are no longer tracking sand into the house!

There is still quite a bit of work left to be done as far as the edging goes (it didn't exactly end up straight), and filling in the joints with the special sand.  And then of course we have the shade structure to put up.  But, all in due time.

Here's a look at the whole thing with the pavers.  Dog tested, Mother approved.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some shade structure updates!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have seen this craze all over Pinterest lately.  And in my attempt to save us a little moolah, I figured it was worth a shot.  The “recipes” looked pretty safe and simple and I love the sense of accomplishment I have when I make something on my own. 

So, I found this pin on Pinterest and decided to use it as my guide.  I will say that I bought most of my ingredients on Amazon since we have Amazon Prime and the shipping is free…why not?  But I did buy the Oxiclean, the Borax, and the large 2 gallon jar at the store.  Here are what the ingredients look like (since I had never heard of washing soda or Fels-Naptha till now) and how much you will need of each:

4lb box of Baking Soda

4lb box of Borax

55 oz of Washing Soda (made by Arm n Hammer found in the laundry isle)

3 – 3.5 lbs of Oxiclean powder (I couldn’t find 3.5 pound containers, so I used 3 pounds)

3 bars of Fels-Naptha

So, the first thing we did was line a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket with a plastic trashbag. Then I dumped about 1/3 of each of the powder ingredients into the bucket. 

Then I used a cheese grater, and grated up the bars of Fels-Naptha one at a time.  It actually looks a lot like cheese, but it is much easier to grate. 

Then I threw that into the bucket with the powders.  And mixed that all up.  Repeat that until you have used all 3 bars, and all of the powder ingredients.  (I used my hand to mix it, just make sure you wash your hands before and after).  So then you should have a powder mixture that looks like it has bits of cheese in it! 

The technique we used to get it in to the container was to lift the bag out of the bucket, and cut off one of the corners of the bag and let it empty into the container.  And voila!  There you have homemade detergent! 

It works great in our HE front loader washer, I just place the detergent directly into the drum instead of in the compartment.  You only need 1-2 tablespoons per load.  And it really has no scent at all.  I’ve read where you can add essential oils or fabric softener crystals to the mix to make it smell better, but we prefer the no-scent route.  And all these basic ingredients are great for sensitive skin.  It was a win-win for us and I know it’ll save us money over the year because of how long it lasts!

DIY Jewelry Shelf

So this project has been sitting on the kitchen counter for about 3 weeks.  And now it has been hanging on my wall for about 2 weeks and I love it.  It’s so simple and clean and gets rid of clutter!  I love how great it matches with my earring holder and I love that the colors were totally customizable.  I opted to stick to mostly white just because I like that light airy feeling it has.  But I added a little sum’n sum’n with the gray knobs.  Looking back, I probably should have gone with a longer shelf, but I suppose I can always change it out later, or just move things around and add a second one!

Ok, so the process was super simple. I went to Home Depot and bought a plain white shelf that came with the supports.  I got the all in one package instead of choosing the shelf separate from the supports. 

Then, I used a piece of scrap wood that I had left over from our closet makeover a while back.  The hubs cut it down to size for me so that it fit in between the two supports at a 90 degree angle from the shelf.  This is where we screwed the knobs in.  After I spray painted the knobs, and we screwed them in, it was ready for installation! 

I had the hubby hang it just below my earring holder with enough space for my large chunky bracelets to sit on the shelf.  I love the way it looks and how little space it takes up.  And now all of my jewelry is so accessible, so I have no excuse not accessorize!  I’m excited to make another one so that I have a spot to put all of my “stud” earrings and more delicate necklaces.  

Organized Earrings

So I know I have been majorly slacking when it comes to posting.  And I wish I had an excuse for it...but alas, my only excuse is that I've become super engrossed in my Harry Potter books during my free time!  I'm currently on book 6 and almost half way through with it.  So bare with me as I finish the series!

But for now, I do have a jewelry organization DIY project to share with you.  I've decided that keeping all my "fashion" earrings in a drawer is just not convenient at all.  I never remember what earrings I have, and they always get all tangled together.  And normally my mornings are one big rush so I don't have time to go rummaging to find earrings to go with my outfits.  So I've seen this simple idea floating around Pinterest lately and I really wanted to try it.

So I went to Home Depot and bought one long piece (96 inch) of moulding.  Hubby and I measured it out (ok so this was mostly him, but I watched and finally learned how to use the saw!) and cut the 96 inch piece in to 4 equal pieces.  We cut the ends at 45 degree angles.
NOTE: You could always just go buy a frame and take out the backing a glass. But I thought it would be fun to try totally from scratch.

The piece came unpainted, so I just slapped a couple coats of white spray paint on there.

Then using some Gorilla Wood glue

I glued the four pieces together.  I had to use some Irwin Quick Grips to hold the pieces together, otherwise I would have had to hold two pieces at a time together until they dried enough.

While at Home Depot, we also picked up some insect screen material

I unrolled that and hubby used a staple gun to tack it down to the frame.

Once it was pulled tight, and stapled all the way around, I cut off the excess

And voila, this is what I ended up with!

We attached a simple picture hanger to the back of it, and stuck it up on the wall.  And it soon became this beauty

Now all my "fashion" earrings are out on display in all of their loveliness!  I love being able to see them all so clearly.  And all of the pairs are not jumbled up together.  It ended up being a great way to spruce up a blank wall and organize my jewelry!  I have plans to add a shelf underneath with some knobs for necklaces.  I will *hopefully* be working on that this weekend.  So I should have another post for you quite soon!

Patio Update

Hello out there!  A while back I promised an update on our patio overhaul.  Well the patio is part of the reason that I've been so busy...ok, not really but its the reason the hubs has been so busy!  I've helped some. and so now I have some pictures.  So, last time you saw the patio it looked like this

Well there have been some updates since then.  First things first, we rented a plate compactor from Home Depot.  Hubby used that to compact down all that gravel that we spread around.  He ran some strings from one side to the other to make sure that things were all level with a slight slope away from the house.  

Next, we rented a hydraulic auger.  Also from Home Depot.  We ended up using an auger with a 12 inch bit. We had to use hydraulic because our soil is so clay-like, there is no way a regular one would've gotten through.  

 We drilled 6 holes total.  The holes ended up being 3 feet deep.  Two on the corners by the house, and 4 on the edge by the grass.  The holes looked like this

Finally, we purchased 6 large posts.  These were 6 inch by 6 inch by 12 foot douglas fir posts.  We purchased a boat load of concrete bags (mixed these up by hand - ughhh poor hubby!)  and set the posts into the holes.  My job was helping mix the concrete, and making sure the posts were level as he poured the concrete into the hole.  It's also good to note here, to make sure your posts are square with the house, as well as in line with each other.

Finally, it looks like this

The furbabies had to make an appearance!  So that's where we are now.  Next steps are to buy sand and spread that all around.  This will give the pavers something to sink into to help make sure they are level.  Then the pavers will go down.  Then we can fancy it up a bit, with some rock detail around the base of the posts, paint, and some sort of shade sale thingy-ma-bob.

I'll try to make sure I'm more on top of things as we progress.  But to be honest, it took a while to get from that last picture, to this picture mostly because of holiday traveling, and weather.  So I'm really not that far behind!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for another upcycle project.

Upcycle Crafts

I'm trying to catch up here, so yes, you get two posts in one day.  Another small project I worked on this weekend was upcycling some old wine bottles.  I have saved a few over the past few months and finally decided to get on it and actually use them.

Since I had already washed them out right after we finished the wine, that part was done.  I took the bottles upstairs and wrote on them with my hot glue gun.  I didn't remove any labels and I think they turned out fine.  I made sure that my words were within the label, so after it was spray painted, it somewhat looked like a little frame around the words.  Make sense?

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the bottle with just the glue and no paint.  But here is one of the bottles after one coat of white spray paint.

And here they are after they have been coated 3-4 times (sorry for the less than stellar pictures).

My plan for these beauties is to make a few more coffee filter flowers died with food coloring and use them as decoration on the dresser in our master bedroom.  I even like them so much, I might try to make a few more to go above the cabinets in the kitchen.  Maybe I'll even try something other than white :-)

Stay tuned for some other fun crafts I have in progress!

Cheap and Easy Upgrade

Happy Monday! Wait, is there such a thing?  Can Mondays be happy?  Not sure if I've experience that one yet!  But nonetheless, I have a cheap and easy upgrade to show you that I completed this weekend.

Remember the upcycled toilet paper roll wall art project that I showed you a while back?

Well it was looking a little sad up there on the big wall all by itself.

So last week I went to goodwill and picked up a nearly brand new oak frame for $3.99!  Score!  So I got some gray spray paint at WalMart and went to town.  I took off the backing of the frame, and removed the glass since I wouldn't need it anyways.  I gave the frame a couple of coats and let it dry over night.

Then for an extra special touch and a pop of color to match the wall art, I added some of these felt flowers from a previous craft night.  A couple dabs of hot glue later, and here is my new wall art!

Now it doesn't look so sad up there on the wall by itself.  It also matches really well with the new color theme I am in the middle of switching my house to.  Stayed tuned for a bedroom overhaul update! What have you all been up to?  Any upcycled or spray painted crafts?

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