DIY Coffee Scent

To get that heavenly scent of coffee in the home (which is also a great deodorizer), try this trick!
Take a small dish, and fill with coffee beans or coffee grounds, and then place a tea light or small votive candle in the middle of the beans/grounds. The heat will heat up the coffee scents and create a nice aroma in the home! Also, coffee is a great deodorizer! Which is great for my husband who has bad allergies! We can make the home smell good, without those potent potpourris!

Try this: Cardstore FREE card giveaway!

HAPPY LEAP YEAR DAY!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to all the Leap Year babies out there! February is a very special day to be born and deserves special recognition (since it only comes once every four years!). My Grandfather (on my father's side) was born on February 29th, and would be "21" today! Happy Birthday Pappa! We miss you and are so happy you are with Grandma Sweetie in heaven!


Well, I found a company that believes, like me, birthdays should be celebrated and recognized: CardStore! And in honor of 2/29/2012, they are giving away FREE cards! You can customize a birthday card (words and pictures and all!) and at check out, just type in the code for your FREE card! It has FREE delivery too! How sweet are they!

http://www.cardstore.com/

code: CCC2029
exp: 2/29/12 only! or till 29,000 cards have been given away.

"Today I Will Choose JOY" wall art

(sorry it is sideways... I am having trouble flipping this picture)

I saw this poster and loved the colors, especially since my dining area has taken a liking to these colors too! So I thought I would add this to my collection.

You will need:
4 paint colors (I used Cloudless blue, Antique White, Red Apple, & Black) all by Apple Barrel Acrylic Paints
1 canvas
2 paint brushes (one thick for the blue and berries, and one fine for the writing/ tree)

Directions:
First paint the whole canvas blue. I even painted the sides to give it a professional look. This took me two coats of paint. Use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process.

Next, write your words. I started with the white so that I could get the hang of writing and mistakes could easily be corrected with some blue paint over it. Luckily, no mistakes. The top three rows, I tried to keep all the lettering the same size, leaving "JOY" to be bigger at the bottom. Remember to take your time if you want all your print to look the same. Another hint, use chalk to lightly write your letters first, giving you something to trace. I didn't, but I know this works best for some people.
Allow all to dry.
Lastly, draw the twig. It's ok for the twig to go on top of the letters. I liked it best that way. Then, add the berries by taking the handle of the big brush and dipping it into the red. Make circle motions to make the berries full and bigger, if need be.

Finished! Love it!

Total cost was $5 because all I had to buy was the canvas and the blue paint; I already had the other paint colors and brushes!

Wedding Memento Frames

You put so much work into picking out the invites, the stationary for your wedding... why not make them a displayable work of art! This is a great way to keep and display items from your wedding!

I have two different pieces here:

The top piece is a 13" X 17" picture frame from Michaels, about $8 (but you can use your coupons and get it for less!).
I had displayed (top to bottom, starting with the left side) our save-the-dates postcard, our invitations, our wedding programs, a piece of burlap from our wedding decor (1 Corinthians 13:8), a wedding kiss picture, our sparkler send-off picture, a Congratulations card (with a cute bride and groom outfit!), and lastly, our thank you cards.

And then the bottom piece I made of our wedding date. It's a divided picture frame, about 6.5" X 13" undivided, and cost about $6 at Michaels (again, use a coupon and you save!).
I went to this site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/collections/ and found pictures of numbers to print. I just adjusted the size and printed on my printer. 5 7 11!

Here is our living room! Finished project? For now :)

Hint for all you Apartment Dwellers out there: Try to stray away from push pins, they just poke little holes in the wall you have to deal with later when you leave! So, what's a good alternative? How about Command Strips (which you can find in almost any store!). They stick to your object and the other side sticks to the wall, but there is a tab that you can pull when it is time to take it all down, and No Mess/ No Holes! Pretty cool :)

Packing lunches tip

Have you ever packed veggies and dip for lunch? Yum right?!?!?! Although, my annoyance with it is putting the dip in a container. If you put too much, it is kind of wasted when you are done. If you put too little, you are stuck with "naked veggies". And also, the dip gets all around the container... so annoying!

So here is something I found that really works (and looks pretty!). Take a container of your choosing and pour a little dressing in the bottom. Then, fill up vertically with veggies that are shorter than the container with the lid on. (if you are cutting your own, use the container as a measuring mark!). And Voila! The dressing rises a little to cover the veggies, and it is the perfect serving size! Enjoy!

Blue and Red and Yellow

I have been craving some change, and some color uniformity, this past month or so. Maybe it is the warmer weather or the thought of Spring coming soon (it has been an unusually warm winter in NC this year!)... regardless, I wanted to tackle another crafty project, and make a color change to our home!

Hence: Blue Red and Yellow! I have fallen in LOVE with the color combo of pale blue with vibrant red, and a toss of yellow sunshine never hurt any one. And every time I cooked in my kitchen, I found more and more kitchen objects that especially fed my new pale blue and vibrant red obsession! Pots, bowls, spatulas, Tupperware... how did we register for these items and never noticed the theme of colors?!?! So something had to be done! Our kitchen runs right into the dining area, nothing fancy, but definitely makes you want your kitchen to either match your dining area, or be completely opposite (to separate out the areas more). I wanted it to all flow, maybe making the appearance of a bigger over all space :) I try!

I made these sets of prints and framed them using frames from around the house! I really liked how it all turned out! It uses the themes of colors, with similar frames (black, black and silver, and silver), all in a cluster layout, which I think adds to the over all charm!

Ruffle Tree Skirt

Now, we bought the tree (Craigslist baby!), I had the ornaments (my mom gifted us ornaments every year since birth!), had the stockings already (my mom had my husband's made to look like mine and gifted it to him last year... and Bentley got his from the in-laws! Bentley is spoiled!), and we bought some awesome led lights from Costco (love that place!). I even found a star in my ornament stash for the top of the tree! So what was left? How about a tree skirt :) I found this awesome site that had a how-to on making a no-sew ruffle tree skirt.

HGTV How to Make a No-Sew Ruffle Tree Skirt


I tried it out and this picture is of my new tree skirt! After MANY burnt fingers on the glue gun (I need to get a better glue gun)... the result was nice! It wasn't my best work, but the project was very forgiving on exact measurements. I will buy a tree skirt one day, but this project didnt cost me (I used what I had), wasn't too time consuming, and I could make it as big/ thick as I wanted... which was great because our tree is really FAT! hehe

Try this: Wedding Photo Book

Before we were even married, I knew what I was going to give our parents and grandparents for Christmas this year. Call me crazy, but when you plan your own wedding, you get "planning for the future" ideas like this! So I decided to make a photo book out of our wedding pictures as gifts! Photo BOOKS, not photo albums. That's where a company has a program where you download and organize all your pictures, then they print and bind them on a hard cover book, to make your photos look like a picture book! It looks amazing and so professional!

So here's how I made this work: During the summer, I found LivingSocial coupons for this company called MyPublisher where they were offering half off a book, PLUS added pages to your book! Which was awesome because three books can add up quick, and I had SOOOO many pictures from the wedding (over 800!) so the additional pages would be put to good use!
The great thing about LivingSocial is that the coupons didn't expire till 2012 (so PLENTY of time!) and I could buy three coupons and use them each for the discount! I also trust LivingSocial because I have had some problems with vendors and LivingSocial has backed me up with full refunds or credits! They know how to do business right!
So MyPublisher requires you to download their photo book software (free!) and then you download the photos you will use on to that program. Then... the rest is up to you! Being as creative or basic as you want, they allow you to tweak the photos a bit, re-size, write words, and give you tons of options when it comes to printing. They also let you know while you editing if that photo will looks it's best, or if it needs to have something done to it. It's strange how the photo can look great on your computer but won't print well... so thank goodness they have that! I also think MyPublisher has a refund policy, so if they are at fault for printing, or your unhappy with their work (mind you... your responsibility for editing comes in to play too) they will redo the book free of charge. Good business. Good accountability!

Of course my creative "genius" made me almost wait till last minute to put the finishing editing touches on the photo books... but ordering was a piece of cake, and although they said they were so busy from the holidays that orders could be taking the maximum estimated delivery time... mine came EARLIER than predicted! Way to deliver!

The Results? LOVE!!!!!!!!!!! They were beautiful and every one enjoyed them! And now that I have seen them, I am jealous and want to order one for my self soon! Good thing MyPublisher keeps your books always on file! ;) I will definitely be using them again! They are a little pricey, but they always have sales and deals and the quality is AMAZING!

Click here to see our Photobook of our Wedding~

Flower Painting for the Kitchen

This Christmas, my mother-in-law wanted a painting with her favorite bible verse on it: "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15.

Of course I said I would do it and I definitely racked my brain on this one. I seem to have problems on "commissioned" art because I get caught up in wanting it to be "perfect" and what the person wants (I paint for others to appreciate I guess). And I really get stuck in creativity when the person says "do what ever you want". Yikes, the pressure is on! Not only do I have to create the "perfect" piece, but I have NO perimeters! Some people love total freedom, but I guess I loved structured creativity. I love to please others, and if I can do that through my creativity, then win win! But I need to know what is wanted.

So this piece was inspired by colors that are in her back splash tile work, and a busy fabric I found that had all these partitioned flowers. I picked a few of the flowers from the fabric and mimic-ed them on a bigger scale to create this (with the quote in the middle):








The real kicker to this project (aside from my own problems with painting for others! haha) is the piece had to fit in an irregular spot in the kitchen. Luckily, my father-in-law has oodles of tools and wood, so he made a base for me and I bought some heavier fabric (which I ended up doubling on it's self to prevent bleeding, just in case... and making it stronger still) then we staple gunned it on. My husband created a cardboard backing on each framing opening, to prevent sagging. A family affair for sure! But I was pleased at the results and I think my mother-in-law enjoyed it too!

Yarn Wreath

Before we ditch autumn to celebrate (my favorite!!) Christmas holiday, I wanted to share with you a simple craft: a Yarn Wreath. This was one that I found on www.pinterest.com and just HAD to try! It was a bit time consuming, but I liked the final product :)


I created my own foam wreath by buying some outdoor pipe insulation from Home Depot (cost about $4 with tax) and that gave me about 4 tubes to work with. I just took one, cut it a little, and duct taped it together. Then, you start the wrapping of string. This took forever in my opinion (you have to physically take the ball of yarn in and out of the wreath to wrap it), but if you just watch a movie or something, time flies by.


Once I wrapped the wreath 2 or 3 times fully around, then it was finally time to decorate. I found a site for making felt flowers, which I will post instructions later if I can find my pictures, and used them to decorate. I also bought a twig that had sequins on it, from Micheal's, for less than a dollar, to add some bling and a play on natural.


All in all, it was an inexpensive craft. Probably less than $10 total for ALL the supplies. It was a little time consuming, but I was very happy with the results.

Try this: Uses for Olive Oil

Olive oil is not only great for cooking, it is also great around the house! From beauty to house maintenance... I have made a list of uses for Olive Oil! Try some out and let me know what you think!

Shaving for a close shave - Just put a little bit on olive oil on your legs and shave with your razor for a closer shave. Yay smooth legs!

Make-up remover - Put a little on a cotton ball and use to remove eye make-up! Great trick for when your product runs out!

Moisturizer - A little bit of olive oil on the skin will give you a natural moisturizer!

Soften cuticles - Put olive oil on a q-tip and swipe cuticles.

Shine/ Dust your wood - Put a little olive oil on a rag and rub into wood furniture. It gives it a nice shine and takes away dust.

Shine stainless steel - A little olive oil on a cloth and rubbing your stainless steel pots can give them an awesome shine!

Loosen your jean zipper When you pant's zipper gets stuck and has trouble moving up and down, put a little olive oil on a q-tip and rub on zipper track. Then move the zipper up and down and it should loosen right up!

Get wax off candles Pour a little olive oil into a candle holder that has some candle wax you want to get rid of. After a little soak, a lot of the wax will slide off!

No more hair balls Now if you are a cat person, this one is for you. 1/4 tsp of olive oil in the cat's food = no more hair balls! yay!

Squeaky door fix - Squeaky door? Put a little olive oil on a q-tip and rub into the hinges for no more squeak!

Have another use for Olive Oil that you have found works? Write a comment and share!

UPDATE:
Another use for Olive oil?
Super Shine, DIY style: A whole lotta olive oil and a tbsp of honey. Mix it up and work it through your hair. Leave in for at least half an hour - overnight’s even better. Result: Gleaming, soft, smooth, totally non-staticky hair!
...has anyone tried this one yet? Sounds good... but sounds risky too!

Home is where the Heart is

This is a drawing that I did one afternoon. I drew a map of the United States and then drew hearts for each of the places me and my husband have lived (either together or apart). Then I labeled the places. I created a sign on a piece of wood (from our wedding!) saying: Home is where the ♥ is! and put a ribbon through it to hang it up. It really turned out cute, and is a great memento of where life has taken you as a couple, and where you are together today!

Drawings

These are just a sample of some drawings I did one afternoon. A lot of them, I looked on some etsy.com sites and found inspiration and tried to draw the picture I saw.

New Zealand Finch Painting

My mom had two New Zealand Finches named Ozzie and Matilda Moto. She has them for a number of years, and just this year, they passed away. I wanted to do a painting for her in memory of The Motos.
I outlined with a fine tip marker and then watered down acrylic paints to create a water color look.

Wedding Photo Collage

From the wedding, I had four cork boards. They were used as my escort cards holder. I decided to hang them in the dining area with the word: LOVE. Then I printed black and white pictures from our wedding day (free prints from Walgreens!) and used little wooden pins to secure them to the ribbon that was already on there. It is fun to eat dinner and talk about our wedding :)

Bird Silhouette Painting

I am always trying to understand "my style" in life. With music, I've given up trying because although I do have a couple artists I favor... the minute I find a genre that fits "my style", I am surprised with a completely different sounding song that I LOVE. Eclectic? I guess that is the only way to fully describe my music taste.
But I think I am more consistent in my Home decor style. And I've decided to name it "Natural Modern". I love natural fabrics (burlap, canvas, woods), and I love the nature aspect (birds, trees, leaves, flowers). But I also enjoy bold prints and color.

Anyways, this painting is one that I created a while ago, and took a picture of recently. I think it fits "my style" completely! And, "shadow birds" (as I call them) seem to be the "in" trend right now. Love it!



I painted the canvas cream, then did small brown horizontal strokes in brown and blended them in.
Next, I did a dappling technique around the edges of the canvas with the paint brush, and also used a paper towel when I wanted more muted tones. I used reds, yellows, browns, oranges, and even a little blue.
Then I painted a branch across the bottom of the canvas, then the two birds.

A lot of this painting was to taste. Playing with different techniques and using different brushes helped.
And remember, if you "mess up"... you can always dry it and paint over it! The beauty of canvas painting :)

Make your own Pillows

Pick out your fabrics. I wanted to do two different fabrics for four different pillows.

Flowery

Striped. Noticed I kept the same color pallet with a detailed print and a bold stripe. Then your pillows won't clash.

Since this is my first time making pillow covers, I miscalculated how much I would need. So, to remedy this, I made reversable pillows. One side is flowery, one side is striped. This made three pillows, which I think things in odd numbers are better for decorating any ways :)


I had these pillow inserts from an old set of pillows, so I am re-purposing! Making pillows is a great way to make a room your own!

Measure the amount of fabric needed to fit the pillow. It should be snug, but not tight.


Use your pinning needles to keep the fabric together, and to give your self a good line to follow while sewing.


Sew away! This is my new sewing machine and boy is it AWESOME! Before I had it, I tried sewing by hand... I finished one side of the pillow then vowed to not finish the pillow without my machine!!!! Technology is awesome :)

I sewed three sides of the pillow, and left one open. Turn the sewn fabrics inside out, you will see a nice seamless edge! What a reward!


Then stuff the pillow inserts inside. On the side that's open, fold the fabric in, so that you can see the pattern inside the pillow, and stick one side of your Velcro to one fabric side, and the other side of the Velcro to the other fabric side. Press Velcro together to seal up your pillow and creating a flawless seam.

Set on couch and ENJOY!

Modern Forest Wall Art

I have become addicted to this site called pinterest.com (follow me!) where you can find SOOOOO many crafts and meals and ideas galore! My mind always swirls with creativity when I find a dozen new things I want to do! The problem can be that there are so many things to do, that you do nothing but save them all for a later day! Well, not me! I have already begun a couple projects inspired by pinterest! Some of which include... a Christmas tree skirt, an autumn yarn wreath, a couple pillows... and THIS! A modern looking forest painting using painters tape. Here it is, hanging in our living room!


Our Living room!

Here's how I did it:

Supplies:
acrylic paints (creme, brown, green)
canvas
painters tape
newspaper (to cover the table!)
paint brushes

Directions:

Paint a creme base coat. While still wet, paint small horizontal brown lines, then use a thicker brush with horizontal brush strokes, to blend in the brown slightly. You are going for a wood look.


Next, use the painters tape to make overlapping trees. Remember, where you put the tape, is where a tree will be. so make the tape as tree like as possible :) Also, make sure it is as tightly on and sticking completely. You dont want paint bleeding!


Then, paint green ALL over. You will have to do several layers. Use a blow dryer to help speed up the process! Also, be careful not to put too much paint on the edges, because that makes more bleeding too.


Then the reveal! So fun! Make sure all paint is dry! and peel off carefully!

Here is the "paint bleeding" I have been so obsessively talking about. When I pulled the tape off, I got some paint bleeding... yuck. BUT IT IS CURE-ABLE!
Before

But with a small paint brush, some creme paint, and some patience... I was able to go over those green blobs and touch up the trees, making them clear and clean!

After

The finished product:

Trick-Or-Treat Door Ribbon

I can't wait to own my own house one fine day! Now, I really do love our apartment, there's a lot of great positives about it, but when you own your own home... you get to decorate for the holidays!!!! And boy, I LOVE my holidays! I love getting crafty and getting into the holiday season!
I decided to recycle some ribbons I had lying around and create a Trick-or-Treat door ribbon, and then I will sneak it on our front door when Halloween night is here! hehe! The little things ♥

Supplies:
2 ribbons of different colors and widths (I used a thick orange ribbon with a thinner ribbed polka-dotted green ribbon)
1 sheet of scrape book paper (I used a black one that already had a black glitter swirly design on it)
letter stencils/ a Cricut (or if you are like me and can't afford a Cricut (but really want one for Christmas! hint hint!... you can just draw the letters and cut out yourself)
1 hot glue gun/ 2 sticks
scissors

Directions:
Smooth out the ribbon (I use my hair straightener for a quick fix!).
Cut to desired length, and make sure to quickly singe the ends with a match (in order to prevent fraying).
If you have enough extra in one ribbon, save it to make a bow!

Put a strip of hot glue on the center of the thicker width ribbon, and lay the thinner ribbon on top. Do the glue in small sections so that the glue doesn't cool down before you are ready.

Get out your paper and on the back, do your letter outlines. Make SURE to do them backwards!!!! Because once you cut them out, you will see the other side, so you want it to be readable from that side. I did it like that so you wouldn't be able to see any pencil marks, and you can make as many eraser and pencil mistakes as you want and it won't ruin the finished product!

Once the letters are to your liking, cut them out using sharp scissors (preferably small and pointed tips). Take your time! The more precise the cut, the better the final product!

SPECIAL: On the "O", I got a little fancy and wanted to put a spider in the middle. An exacto knife can be used to cut the fine details out (make sure to have some thing to cut on! like cardboard or cutting board). I then glued a white piece of paper behind the cut spider "O", to make it pop against the ribbon.

Then, hot glue your letters to the ribbon! Make sure your spacing is right.

On top, I had some extra ribbon and make a bow. I just tied a knot and then tied the best bow I could. I hot glued the center to make the bow more stable (and to keep it from ever getting undone) and then hot glued the bow to the door ribbon!

Finished Product:


I think it turned out cute! yay re-purposing!

Feathers in your Hair

SO there is this craze now a days to get a feather in your hair and it is sooo cute (in my opinion)! It reminds me of my youth when wrapping your hair with thread was the "in" thing :) So this feather thing is the same concept. I did a little research to check where to get a feather put in your hair, and salons will do it... for a price! It's like $10 to $15 for just a single feather! So what if you wanted two or three feathers? You are looking at 50 some dollars (and don't forget to tip!). Well, I did a little more research and found out there is a way to do it for about $3 dollars AND you get to use a better quality feather :)

Supplies and Directions:
"To make a feather hair extension you will need a crochet hook or hair extension hook and you will also need a hair extension link. All you need to do is put it on your hook, put the hair on here and pull it through so the link is on the hair. After the link is on the hair, insert your feather through the link and the hair both, then crimp the link with the pliers -- that's all you have to do," said Nora on a segment on Living Well Network.

And remember people, you don't have to pay full price for these items (making the cost less and less!). Places like Hobby Lobby and Michael's have sales on different items each week, plus they have coupons you can print up from their site and use!

UPDATE: this trend... is for the dogs?!??! http://www.puppylocks.com/puppygallery