DIY: Cell Phone Charging Holster

This was a fun little project that I whipped out in about 30 minutes.  I was feeling crafty last night and my hands wanted to be busy while we watched some Office reruns.  I followed this tutorial and since I already had everything on hand, it was a quick project.  My verdict--Cute to look at:  yes.  Practical:  no.  I already have a handy spot in our bedroom where we're used to plugging in and charging our phones.  This would be perfect for someone though that plugs theirs in the kitchen or in an office.

DIY Fail

Dang, friends.  I was trying to be all thrifty and not spend money but it back fired on me.  I should have done some research first before jumping right in.

With the little updating kick I've been on lately around my house, I decided that I wanted white lamp shades for the one in our living room and the two in our bedroom. They were a boring cream color that kind of blended in with the walls.

So I painted them white.  (If you already knew what I wish I would have, a melodramatic "wah wah" noise now would be appropriate.)

Painted lamp shades are in fact the antithesis of what I was going for--brighter lit rooms.  Now I know.

They actually make the room much darker because the light doesn't shine as easily through the shade.

Learn from me.  Don't paint your lamp shades.

What I Did Today During Naptime {The Great Switcheroo}

I've been doing lots of switcheroo-ing 'round these parts lately.  The goal being to spend very little money if any at all, but to get my 'freshing up' fix.

I took our master bathroom mirror, painted it white, put hooks on it and hung it in the laundry room.

I took the mirror caddy that was on the laundry room wall previously and positioned it in our front entryway.  I removed a dark console table that was there, too, to open it up.  When friends come over, there's always this awkward moment of Where do I go?  We both don't fit? and a little shuffling around happens.  But now I like both the laundry room space and entryway better.

If you're still tracking with me, imagine if you will, the now laundry room mirror in the master bathroom (below).  It was the mirror that came with the "kit" and matched everything else.  I'm discovering about myself that I'm not a fan of matchy-matchy stuff.

The current mirror in the master bathroom (painted turquoise awhile back) was in the entryway of the house (confused yet?).  Now that it's in the master bathroom, I find the pop of color refreshing.

I Kind of Have a Thing for Lobal Decor

Hi, my name is Carey and I have an earring addiction.

When I was a little girl, pre-pierced ears, I would yearn for the pretty things that hung from cooler, older girls' earlobes.  I specifically remember an afternoon I was shopping at my all-time favorite preteen jewelry store and decided I was a 'dangly earrings' kinda girl.  I like studs and all, but I really liked the look of big, dangling, colorful, bright, unique earrings.  After much anticipation, my mom finally let me get my ears pierced at age 12.  I kept in the default cubic zirconia studs in my ears for the recommended 6 weeks, turned them every day and cleaned them gently with hydrogen peroxide.  Then at last the day arrived that I could remove those boring studs and don my sparkly girly dangly earrings.  I was a happy girl.  The end.

Annie said that you're never fully dressed without a smile, but I say, you're never fully dressed without earrings.  How about that?  Ha.

In a continued effort to reorganize, I took my jewelry box and found a way to display my earrings.  I'm thinking I'll be wearing them more often now.

(before)

(after)

I copied this idea from her.  I went to both Lowe's and Home Depot today and neither store had the decorative radiator plates that she mentioned, so I used this instead.  Now our bathroom wall is girl-ified.  :)

You've Got Mail

It's true.  Sometimes I am too lazy and too cheap to go to a store to find real toys for my kids.  But hey, it makes their imagination work harder, right?  :)  And look how happy she is--not tainted in the slightest.  What comes to my mailbox as junk mail is treasure to my 2 year old.  She loves to go get the mail and if her name is on it, then that's more mommy points for me.  She rips it up and looks through it with concentration, then has a ball pretending some more that someone sent her mail.  Sweet, gullible thing.  And yes, that's my baby in the background ingesting some of Vera's "mail."

Merry Christmas To Me

 

It was my goal this year to make as many people's Christmas gifts as possible.  I have been mostly successful, even for my difficult-to-buy-for-hubby, and it has been really fun.  I stay up late a couple nights a week for hours while everyone in my house is sleeping.  It is energizing to work by myself on projects and not be needed by anyone.  I have had piles of 'ingredients,' if you will, of stuff to complete these projects.  They had been mounding and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I promised myself I wasn't going to start anything new until all of my started on things were finished.  One of those things was this pillow that I made for myself.  Well, for our bed, actually.  It needed some kind of personalization.  West Lafayette, Indiana is where Chris and I met, fell in love, and got married.  Needless to say, it will always be a special place to the both of us.

DIY Holiday Decor: Letters

I have to start off by saying I did not make these myself, but was actually gifted them from my in-laws!  I had similar gold letters that I bought several years ago that read "Noel" that I put out every Christmas, but I am convinced that they were my arch nemesis of all my holiday decor.  For the life of me, each year I could never figure out where to put them or how to arrange them.  It was the kind of thing that at the time I paid way too much money for, but hindsight is 20/20, I guess.  The previous letters ended up breaking this weekend.  They were just not designed well and ended up falling off the mantel and shattering.  I took that as a sign that I was being released from them!  :)  However, I did really like the idea of them, so my in-laws (who stayed with us for Thanksgiving) surprised me and went to the craft store to make me some similar ones.  They spray painted them and secured them on sturdy blocks (painted white to blend in with the mantle) so they would not tip over.  I have to say that I like this version ten times more than the old ones.  What a thoughtful gift, right?

My mother-in-law helped me decorate the house for Christmas this past weekend.  It was fun to do it with someone else.  She's really good at arranging things for display.  And if you are curious about the stockings, my mom hand made those for us!  I love them and they mean so much more than store bought stockings.  There are some creative women in my family.

DIY Advent Calendar

I love this idea (taken from here) for an Advent Calendar.  What a fun what to create your own board with stuff you already have around.

Making Fun With Junk Mail

When Chris and I first got married, we would tear open the junk mail and stuff it back inside the prepaid envelopes and send it back to the marketing companies.  The things we did for a laugh back then.  :)

Now, in my more mature years (ha), I've found a somewhat productive activity in which to use the advertisements.  This being only Vera's second time using scissors, I definitely had to help her cut, but she enjoyed the challenging task.  We flipped through the junk mail, she would identify objects, then we'd cut them out together and tape them on a black poster board.

I find it interesting the things she picked out.  Coffee, for example, and boots.  For a quick clean-up, we picked up all the scrap paper and chucked it in the recycling bin.

 

Then we flipped over the poster board and got out the chalk.  I think she enjoyed breaking the chalk into little pieces more than scribbling.

T.P. Pumpkins

I got together with some friends a few weeks ago and we made these adorable pumpkins that are simply wrapped with toilet paper.  How simple and creative for some Fall decor on the cheap!

It's The Best Tasting Gross Candy Out There

Have you ever said a word out loud over and over until it sounded completely absurd?  Try it with "thank you," for example.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you....

In a similar way, the more felt candy corn I made tonight, the more absurd they started looking and I questioned upon the completion of this project if that's what candy corn even looks like.  But it must have just been the wave of tiredness that was doing the crazy talk in my head.

It was one of those nights that I got the crafting bug and didn't want to stop.  I started by working on the girls' Halloween costumes, then decided to keep up the momentum and create this project seen on a friend's sewing blog.  Like I mentioned, I don't have any Halloween decorations, so I decided to remedy this tonight.

But the problem with this is that fake candy corn are now staring at me in my house.  Creepy?  Perhaps.  But I was thinking more along the lines of how can I not buy candy corn now?  And peanuts.  Because that's the best Halloween snack combo ever.

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Do you decorate for Halloween?  Do you do ghouls and ghosts or leaves and pumpkins?  Or felt candy corn?

Dining Table Trivets

Copied the idea from here.  Ever since purchasing our dining table, I have wanted to get some trivets because it made me nervous setting hot stuff on dish towels.  These inexpensive Ikea trivets ($3 for pack of 3) did the job.  I borrowed a wood burning tool and it was finished in an evening.  Pretty cute, if I say so myself.

DIY Dry Erase Board

 

I came across this idea on Pinterest and decided to use the same concept for wall art in our guest bathroom.  Originally I had written "You look lovely today," as a little pick-me-up, but decided to write something a little more honest and wise.

(I bought Chalk Ink, wet wipe markers for this job.)

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What words of encouragement do use as a pick-me-up?

This Ain't No Leap Frog

There are so many neat learning activities for kids out there, but gosh, the costs can really add up.  I don't know about you, but I'd rather utilize stuff I have on hand without spending any money.  I used to be a scrapbooker/card-maker, but I have been freed from that bondage!  So I've got lots of extra supplies to use now for creating lessons for kids.

My friend gave me the idea of using poker chips for developmental lessons.  I decided that it's time we start teaching colors.  Vera's totally not there yet, but I figure repetition has to count for something, right?  For now she enjoys just 'clinking' the chips into the cups (extras I had on hand from hosting parties), but I hope working with her will help her comprehension.  I will have to try to dig up some more solid color paper, otherwise there will be important colors she won't learn because of me.  Just kidding.

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What's your favorite color?

Therapeutic Crafting

I bought a boring "laundry" sign from Hobby Lobby, 50% off for $5.  To zhoozsh it up, I decided to decoupage!  A craft from the '80s, but fun and relaxing.  In the picture above you can see the mound of ripped paper that Vera and I created--we were a bit too ambitious with our tearing up of the Crate and Barrel magazine advertisement.  Mod Podge is awesome stuff.  I've had it for several years since the last time I used it in 2007.  (I know, I have a strangely good memory.) I finished it in about 4 hours, which might sound like a lot of time, but I was particular with how I wanted it to look and making sure to cover the edges and corners.

A craft like this takes awhile, but I find it to be therapeutic in a way.  While we watched 'Mad Men' last night on Netflix, I was working on it and enjoying the repetitive activity.  Gave me time to think through some thoughts.
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Agree or disagree?  Crafting can be therapeutic.

More Than Just The Movies

We are pretty fortunate that we have a close-knit group of friends whom we trust to watch our kids, therefore date nights are not foreign to us.  We know this isn't the case though with a lot of people, especially parents with little kids, so we count ourselves blessed.  We get in a rut though when coming up with ideas, especially without spending a ton of money.  So we did a little brainstorming tonight to make it easier to decide what to do.  Chris added some suggestions and I came up with some, too.  The only thing that did not get added to the pile of ideas was shopping.  Chris + shopping = complete meltdown.  For the both of us.  We have been shopping twice together in our marriage and both times I've had to bribe/reward him with pizza and beer.

I digress.

Hopefully this little tool will help us branch out and take advantage of our great city!

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What are some of your favorite date night activities?

Strand of "Beads"

I found a cute little onesie on Pinterest that I decided to make myself.  Hers is much more precise-looking.  I used a Q-Tip to make the painted black "beads" because that's the only thing I had on hand during nap time when I made it.  The pink rosette was actually part of a broken hair accessory that I reused, and the green button from my extra button box.
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What craftiness have you got up your sleeve?

Book Jacket Puzzles

Hardcover books come with that paper jacket, right?  I don't know if this is the case with other peoples kids, but Vera loves to take them off and they get ripped up easily.  It's kind of pointless putting them back on, so I decided to reuse them and make puzzles. Again, another use for cardboard.  All you do is glue the jacket onto the cardboard, trim off the sides, and cut into puzzle shapes.  I also store these in manila envelopes.

Supplies

book jacket

cardboard

scissors

glue stick

Total Cost - free!

Lacing Cards

I've mentioned before how much Vera loves a project.  This was something new that I remembered doing from my childhood.  I always save cardboard from packaging and keep it in my craft box for things like this.

Supplies 

cardboard - already owned

shoestrings - $2/pkg.

manila envelope - already owned 

Total Cost - $6

File This Under "If I Were Single"

Wrap burlap around some picture frames, hang them on a wall, and display your pretty things.  I would have never come up with rocks on a platter to show off finger jewelry.  All I wear are my engagement and wedding bands anyway.  But I love these ideas!  I can totally picture the wrapped frames in a single lady's home.  Not so sure my husband would be a fan of it though.

How do you organize your jewelry?  I've cleaned out recently, so I have much fewer pieces than I used to own, but I hang my necklaces on some belt hooks in the closet.  On Chris's first business trip to Singapore he brought me back a jewelry box which is one of the most thoughtful and best gifts he's ever given me.  I keep earrings in it along with some bracelets, ponytail holders, bobby pins, my high school class ring, and other costume jewelry.  What's your storage solution?