DIY Heart Garland

I heart Valentines Day :)
Seriously, there is something about Valentines Day that I really like.  It's all the pinks, reds, hearts - it's just a fun holiday.

I made a really easy heart garland for the dining room, and wanted to share it so you too can learn to love Valentines Day..  I mean, it just cheers up the windows right?!


What you'll need
scissors
felt
twine
hotglue
heart buttons

How to do it
cut heart shapes out of the felt
hotglue heart buttons if you want
hotglue the heart to the twine

String it up somewhere
and enjoy it!

Skin Care

I really am against putting a lot of unnecessary crap on my skin.  Even some of the "natural" skin care stuff out there isn't very natural or good for your skin.  Your skin absorbs everything you put on it, so I try to be careful.  I wish I had been more prudent when I was younger, but better late than never I guess.  My routine for my face is pretty simple - my skin looks better than it used to, or at least I think it does.  I had started getting breakouts in my 30's after never really dealing with any of that, and that has cleared up. Small wrinkles are a little less, and a couple of dark spots I was getting are fading as well.  My skin looks and feels better.

I don't always wash my face at night.  I probably should, but I just don't.  I do take my eye makeup off usually though.  For this, I just rub a little coconut oil right on my eyes and wipe off the extra.  Easy and good for your delicate eye skin.  I also sometimes put a little shea butter around my eyes before I go to bed at night.  It's nice and thick and is a good moisturizer for the eye area.

I wash my face with a combination of liquid castile soap, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, castor oil and apricot kernel oil.  I mix it up and keep it in a small quirt bottle.  Doesn't dry my skin and all the oils are super good for your skin.

Sometimes I exfoliate using brown sugar and a little of one of the oils from my facewash above.  Just mix it in my  hand and circular rub it on my face, rinse and done.  Just don't use the toner after you do that.  You'll have face burn for like 3 hours...

If I use a toner at all, which isn't very often, I dilute a little Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar and use a cotton ball to dab a little on my face.

For moisturizer, the only thing I use is a little jojoba oil.  It mimics your skins own natural sebum, so it's really good for you.

Apparently pomegranate is also good for wrinkles and your skin in general, so I may start incorporating a little juice into my cleanser and see if I notice any difference.

and that's about it.  Pretty easy.  I buy the oils from a health food store in town, a little more expensive on the front end, but the supply lasts me quite a while as I mix up enough for a 4oz bottle at a time.

I am also trying to switch the makeup I use over to an all natural.  I really like what I read about Miessence.  Still need to do more research... another post for another day.

The body butter I use is here and it is seriously the best stuff ever.  It's not a traditional lotion - it's creamier, thicker, oilier - but so good for your skin.  I slather it all on right out of the shower head to toe.

Enjoy - do some research and tweak according to what you might want or need.  Would love to hear if you try any of these out.

-M

Basement Makeover

So my big focus right now is our basement.  We have a fairly large basement divided into 3 sections.  One whole side is dedicated to laundry, sewing, craft area.  It's unfinished, kinda cobwebby, but it works for what we need - for now.  There is a door, and a wall, and I can close that room off to the rest of the basement if I want to.

The other 2 rooms - one is our oldest daughter Kalyssa's room and the first room when you come downstairs is going to be our family room.  It was originally just a junk, sewing, office room.  But I decided I wanted another living space. A place for the girls and their friends to hang out, or all of us to watch a movie together - kind of whatever.  Seating was the first issue.  We needed a couch down there, but I really didn't want to buy something new.  Budget is tight, so I knew we were gonna have to do this remodel on the thrifty side.  Lucky for me Pinterest is my best friend.  I had remembered seeing some pallet couches, and figured we could easily do that for a fraction of the cost of a new sectional.  Spent a Saturday morning looking for pallets that would suit my purpose, but weren't finding any that were all uniform or not completely damaged.  My awesome hubby said he would build the pallets that we needed.  We had all the scrap wood, so YAY - no cost pallet couch base!  I am currently in the process of making the cushion covers.  I am making large 33"x33" cushions for the sofa.  I am going to stuff them with chopped foam - a combination of regular foam and memory foam.  I actually found a place online that sells chopped foam by the pound for really inexpensive.  So I bought a little and am going to stuff one of the pillow covers and see how well it sits, how I like it etc. before I buy all that I need.  I also found curduroy fabric at Joann's for $2.50 a yard.  I thought that was a really good deal after seeing some pricey stuff elsewhere.  It was on major clearance and I only needed 8 yards...When all is said and done, my pallet sofa sectional will only have cost me about $100!  Score!

However, I am getting slightly ahead of myself.  I really  just want to share some inspiration for the room.  I think I want to kind of go with a rustic, eclectic theme down there.  I'm having so much fun planning out the family room - I can't wait till it's finished so I can post the final product.  Follow me on Instagram for updates along the way!

Some pallet sofas that are super cute

In the meantime, enjoy my basement board on pinterest...
basement

Bedroom Makeover Post #2

So here is #2 on my master bedroom makeover... Actually I guess it really is #3

See inspiration from Pinterest here and post #1 here

So this is really a pretty basic headboard.  I loved the idea of using a pallet or two, but then I read an article somewhere about how pallets are chemically treated and if they are outside they get bugs and bird poop etc.  So after that totally grossed me out I decided just to go to Lowes and get some (4) 1x8's.  I totally forgot what kind of wood it is - but it was a light wood with alot of knots and markings in it.

We got them home, cut them all to 81" (we have a king size bed) and I wanted them to overlap each side of the bed by about 2 inches.  I actually need to get one more to put at the very bottom, it doesn't hang behind the bed far enough for my liking.

So after we cut them, I sanded the edges down so they were just slightly rounded and smooth.  Stained them with 3 coats of Minwax Dark Walnut stain - wiping off the excess with a rag each time.  Let them dry overnight.

Then we just screwed them straight into the wall one on top of the other.  This is probably not the best way to do this, but I'm pretty sure we found the wall studs, and I'm all about fast and easy.  I didn't want to take the time to mount them on plywood or any kind of frame.  They are pretty sturdy and I don't think I have to worry about them falling out of the wall in the middle of the night.

I love love love the wall behind our bed so far... I have one more thing planned for this wall and then this part of the bedroom makeover will be done and I can get to the fun stuff - spray painting our furniture.  :)

Would love to hear ya'll's thoughts on my homemade headboard.

Once again, please excuse the yucky picture quality.  I only had my cell phone camera at the time...

Homemade Laundry Soap

LAUNDRY SOAP
I do notice a difference when I use this compared to a store bought brand.  The clothes just seem a little brighter and fresher... or maybe it's my imagination.  Either way it's cheaper than store bought, so it works for me!
I've posted this before, but I wanted to post again - I'm about to make up another batch

2 bars of grated ivory soap, or you could use 1 big zote bar - can be found in laundry section of grocery
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda - NOT baking soda, they are slightly different products - also found in laundry section
powedered oxyclean (this step is totally optional)  I personally don't use it.  I feel like it works pretty good, but you may want an extra boost.Blend everything up in a food processor until it looks like powdered laundry soap, store in a covered container.   For large loads use 2 TBS, for small loads use 1 TBS.  Doesn't sound like alot, I know but trust me your laundry will be clean.  This will not suds and bubble, that's normal - and better for your skin.  You can also use straight vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser in your machine.  This helps to deoderize your laundry and prevent static cling.  Make as big of a batch as you want - just adjust ingredients accordingly.


I don't know about HE machines with this soap.  I've heard that because this soap is low to no sudsing it is safe to use, but don't take my word for it.


and yes, the water in your washer may look dingy - that is totally normal.  After all you DO want the dirt to come OUT of your clothes right?  

What I Did On Sunday

So as I was blog browsing this weekend I came across this lovely blog and project: http://prissthis.blogspot.com/2011/09/diy-painted-birch-tree-wall-forest.html

I loved how this mural looked and I have been dying to do a birch tree mural.  I was going to put one in our master bedroom and use an overhead projector but decided to follow her tutorial and basically freehand it (with the help of some painters tape) on a wall in our dining room instead.

Now, my dining room doubles as the office area as well... So technically this wall is right behind my desk.  For my very first mural, and my very first basically freehand attempt I think it turned out pretty darn good.  There are a few fix up spots I need to get to, but overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  Yay me!

Take a look and let me know what you think!  You can visit my link party page to see where I'll be linking this doozy up this week!

Happy Monday everyone

Coffee Filter Lampshade

Ok I know what you're thinking... she did what with coffee filters?  But you read it right folks, I coffee filtered my lampshade.  And it looks freaking awesome!   It was pretty easy actually and I've been seeing alot of coffee filtered things on the internet including lampshades.  I figured it couldn't be too hard to mess this kind of craft up, so I got out my coffee filters and my hot glue gun and went to work.  The lampshade was already red, and I was worried the red was going to peek through the coffee filters and look kinda tacky, but when the light is on it looks so pretty.  Which you will see from the pictures below.

All you have to do for this particular DIY, is scrunch up the filter, hot glue the bottom and stick it on the shade. You want to put them pretty close together so you don't have gaps.

The only bummer with this particular lamp is that the shade doesn't come off.  I was wanting to spray paint the base of the lamp too, but since the shade doesn't come off, I didn't bother with painting the base.  It still looks so cute.  I think I may incorporate coffee filtered lampshades into our bedroom remodel too.

What do you think?

If you're not following me, I'd love it if you would!

I Am So Going To Do This...

How freaking awesome is this??!!  I have no idea what I will do with it when it's done but I am definitely doing it.  As a matter of fact, I think it just got pushed to the number 1 spot on my list of projects.  :)

I'm totally thinking of my kids by the way...

Re-doing an Ikea Cabinet

So I had two of these 3 drawer cabinet thingy's from Ikea in my office at work.  They were so bland - that blonde laminate color stuff and 3 white drawers with silver handles.  I decided they needed a makeover.  That laminate stuff is terrible to try and paint, but they  just sit in a corner in my office, so I think they will be ok.

I used Krylon's Periwinkle blue and sealed them with a gloss sealer to try and help the paint from peeling off the laminate stuff.  It seems to be working pretty good.  Then I had some pretty scrapbook paper that I mod podged to the front of each drawer face.  And I kept the same silver handles.

Overall, I really like how they turned out.  I didn't take any before pictures, sorry about that.  So I'm attaching a picture of a similar cabinet from Ikea's website.

I'm off for a busy errand day... Happy Thursday everyone!
The pictures are terrible, I know, I had to use my cell phone.  I'm trying to work on my picture taking ability, so bear with me.  But you get the general idea...

What a Cute Idea

So, as I was reading through the way too many blogs I try to keep up with, I came across this fantastic little idea.  You have to check it out!  So super cute.

I have some projects in mind.  I am trying to plan them out and hopefully get started up in the next few days/weeks.  Really, it just boils down to the fact that it has been over 4 months since I've spray painted something.  So I'm getting a little trigger finger itchy.  :)

Seriously though, I do have 3 projects at home that need a little TLC, and a work project.  I have 2 small drawer units at my desk at work, and they are so bland.  So I am going to make them pretty.  I'll be sure and post before and after pics.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Dresser Re-Do

So we've had this dresser for a very long time.  It was mine when I was a kid, and it somehow ended back up with me now that I'm a grown-up.  It's been in a guest room, in our kid's play room, and now it sits in a lonely corner of my garage.  We just don't have the space for it anymore, so I've decided to give it a makeover and sell  it.  I mean, who doesn't want a solid wood 3 drawer dresser, right?

Anyway, here are a few before pics for ya to enjoy.  I'm so excited about how it's turning out!  It looks so good!  I can't wait to share the after pics.

Anyway, happy wednesday.  Check back in a few days, I should have her finished.

This was after I cleaned and sanded the whole thing.  Palm sanders rock.

The drawers after they'd been sanded.

Kitchen Table Reveal

So here is my kitchen table before, during and afters.  I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.  I still need to put a coat of sealer on it, but that won't happen until next week probably.  But here she is in all her glory!  I sanded, primed, painted, distressed the crap out of it, and glazed.

BEFORE

This was after I had sanded the top a little bit

AFTER

 I am a horrible picture taker and these pictures were really giving me trouble.  But I hope you get the idea.  It's very scuffed up, which is how I like my furniture.  With 2 kids and 2 dogs, it's bound to happen sooner or later anyway, so why not beat them to the punch.  Then the black glaze adds that antique look which I love even more.

Anyway, chairs will be coming soon.  I'm out of town this weekend, so I won't get much accomplished on the home front.  Hopefully can start them sometime next week.