Weekly Goals

I need to get in gear and get stuff done. I am going to start making weekly goals and updating along the way where I can anyway, without embarassing myself :D

This week:

Monday: Laundry, Laundry, Laundry!!!

Tuesday: Find and pick paint color for basement bathroom! Possibly start priming bathroom.

Wednesday: Clean Living room, Kitchen and Bathroom!

Thursday: Start organizing office, honestly my office is almost this bad, its started pooling up on our kitchen table now too!

Friday: Christmas

Saturday: Paint Bathroom

Sunday: Clean up bedrooms and stay caught up on laundry!

Rice Heat Therapy Bag

I received one of these last year as a gift and use mine all the time, so I thought I would make some this year as gifts.

From my experience I learned that its best not to use essential oils because over time and after many used it actually starts to stink.

So I just got some fabric, cut them in rectangles and sewed them leaving the either short end open, filling about half full with long grain rice (not instant!) the sewed the top shut.



Then using my cricut I made cute little tags for each one.
Reading:
Heat Therapy Bag
Microwave flat 2-3 minutes
Apply to Aches and Pains
To avoid drying place a small bowl of water in microwave during heating every other use
Store in a dry place.





Original inspiration from:
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=280

Window Treatments I can't wait to try out!

From my one of my favorite blogs, Frugal Home Ideas :For the instructions and tutorials see the blog @ http://frugalhomeideas.blogspot.com/

Spray Painting Blinds, who woulda thunk!

No Sew Roman Shades, easy as pie!

No Sew Curtains! Don't they look lovely! I love the look of designer curtains just not the pricetag.

Three great ideas at amazing pricetags, just a little bit of labor love and whalah! I can't wait to make my kitchen blinds into roman shades and then add some designer curtains to dress them up. Not sure where or if I will spraypaint any of my blinds but love the idea.

*Disclaimer, these are not my ideas nor do I take credit for them, just had to share Frugal Home Ideas great projects! Check out the blog you'll love it as much as I do!

Next Up on my wishlist-In home studio

To expand my photography I am in the mist of putting in a home studio. We are converting our family room in our basement into a full studio. I am very very excited to get this process going. We just purchased new carpet and working on everything else. Just for fun I thought I would show some of my inspirational pictures.

I hope to have different areas staged for different ideas, I love having the shabby chic, modern, vintage and then the backdrop area. Our family room is fairly large and I have free rein of the whole room! I will update along the way throughout the process.

Tinkerbell Cricut Fun!

Another freezer paper stencil job with the cricut. My neice loves Tinkerbell so I snatched up the cartridge on black friday to make some fun stuff for her as Christmas gifts. Here is the shirt I made. I love how it turned out.

Here is after I painted, I blended the "Tinkerbell" to look just like the logo. With the stars, just a touch of glitter or as I'll tell her some pixy dust :D

With the freezer paper off, the finished look.

I then put a silohette of Tinkerbell on the side with gold glitter. Here is a close up and then the finished product.


Well what do you think? Not bad eh? My only regret is putting tinkerbell right on the seam but I think when its on it will look great.

Freezer Paper Stencils with Cricut

The first one I tried is just an initial for a personalized tote which I previously dyed brown and sewed on the beaded trim.

Supplies you'll need:

Reynold's Freezer Paper (or any other brand you can find)

Cricut machine with Cartridge of your choice for stencil

Acrylic Paint-color of your choice

Iron

Maybe Patience :D

1st I cut out an initial with the Cricut with Medium Speed, depth, and pressure. Cut with the waxy side up and also use the flip feature.

Iron on the freezer paper in place. Be sure to get the edges really secure.

Then I painted the K bright pink with acrilic paint.

Wait to remove freezer paper until the paint is fully dry, approx. 1 hr. You could use a blow dryer to speed up the process. Allow 20-30 minutes in between coats if you need multiple coats.

Finally run iron over entire painted surface on High for about 20-30 seconds to seal.

Next I made a shirt for my neice who is a dancer.

I used the same settings Medium for speed, depth and pressure. With 3'' letters Plantain schoolbook. With this one I had to save the inside of the letters to make sure they looked right. Follow all the same steps as above.

Here is a close up of the letters, as my second coat I used some glitter.

Here they are both together! I am pretty impressed with how they turned out for being my first try!

Check back later for more freezer paper crafts! They make great personalized gifts, or if you want to just spruce up your clothes.

Free Earrings!!!!!

Urban Original and Seventeen Magazine are giving away earrings to females ages 13-29 starting at 12:01 EST on Tuesday, November 24. Fill out this form from here (http://www.urbanog.com/seventeen/ ) and use the promotional code earrings to claim your free pair. While supplies last and they don’t indicate how many pairs they are giving away.

Often the websites for these types of promos load REALLY slowly at the start of their giveaway, so be prepared for that. I had to share this great deal!!! It also doesn't even ask for your age (if your out of the age range).

Your turn: Did you get a free pair?

Creative Gift for Coffee Lovers:Part I

I found these great recipes to give to co-workers for christmas gifts.

Instant coffee recipes with the easy just add water instruction. Add to pretty bag plus ribbon and nifty tag equals super cute affordable gift. I plan on them looking something like below. I want to make them more christmas themed and nice tags or stickers for the instructions.

I will give you some recipes for now and check back later for the pictures (making them tomorrow!)

[To prepare the following recipes: mix in food processor or blender until you have a fine powder.

For all recipes use 1 to 2 spoonfuls to one mug of hot water. ]

Bavarian Mint

2/3 Cup instant coffee

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. dried mint leaves, finely crushed

2/3 Cup nondairy creamer

Cafe' L'Orange

2/3 cup instand coffee

1 Cup sugar

1 tsp. dried crushed orange peel

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Cafe' Mocha

2/3 cup instant coffee

3 TBS unsweetened cocoa

1 1/3 Cups sugar

1 Cup nondairy creamer

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

Toffee Coffee

1 cup instant coffee

1 cup nondairy creamer

1 cup brown sugar

Cafe' Vienna

1 cup instant coffee

1 1/3 cups nonfat dry milk

1 tsp. cinnamon

Swiss Mocha

1 cup instant coffee

1 cup sugar

2 cups nonfat dry milk

4 tsp. cocoa powder

Cafe' Orange Cappuccino

1 cup instant coffee

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups nonfat dry milk

1 tsp. dry orange peel

Don't forget to check back to see the finished product!

Christmas around the corner?

Ok not my creations or specifically budget friendly just some fun Christmas stuff to share. All of which, I believe would be pretty easily recreated at a decent price tag.


And the now almost famous Martha Stewart Ornament wreath.

I love this look for decorating outdoors! I wish I had a birdbath now!


Now all the ideas with the jars.

A cute centerpiece, I love the trees made from pinecones.

And this one, what's not to love! The color is great, its modern and not overdone.

I love that this one is traditional yet modern. Also not overdone.

Pretty Staircase

From PrettyOrganizedPalace the idea of painting stairs! Brilliant, currently we have 1970's blue carpet on our stairs, we planned on replacing the carpet, but now.... I may end up painting them!

Look at these inspirational pictures: (The first & second ones are my favs and inspiration)

Missed me?

I realized I have really neglected my blog and started looking for inspiration to get some projects started. I hope to have some projects done and posted next week. I have gotten busy with life, things have started to taper off to normal now so I plan to start posting more and become more of a really blogger ;)

Sunday Thrift Store goodies

My thrift store finds of the day; a metal wall art $4.99 (still had the price tag from homegoods of $19.99)



Now after a little bronze spray paint:

and a plain white lamp, $2.99


Getting ready to paint, I wanted the hardware to remain white.



Also after a little bronze spray paint, and a lamp shade ($13.97 from wal-mart)



Here is without the light on, no glare.

Now all together:


Pretty happy with my sunday thrift store finds. A nice way to help vamp up the Living room for less than $20. Later this week I will show you a nice before and after.