Space & Money Saving Keurig Pod Storage

One of our wedding gifts from my mom was a Keurig coffee maker. Now, it's her easy go-to gift to us for birthdays and holidays: Keurig Pods. While I love the convenience of a Keurig machine, I don't love the cost of Keurig pods! And I also don't have enough counter space for one of those pod caddies. So until now, I've settled for keeping vast number of pods from gifts in a paper bag in the bottom shelf and every-so-often rotating them in to a standard pod box that they come in. The box takes up cupboard space and is ugly. Blah.

Then I noticed (while trying to consolidate the clutter on our fridge) that the keurig pods fit perfectly inside the large magnetic file boxes sold at the Dollar Tree! It fits 9 pods and because the box has a large magnet, it can easily stick on your fridge right next to your Keurig coffee maker!

9 light-as-air pods fit perfectly inside this $1 container!

Place right next to your Keurig for easy go-to coffee making!! $1 only!!

Enjoy this cheap, easy, and space-saving solution for storing your beloved Keurig Pods!

DIY Valentine's Day Wreath

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've always felt awkward when it came to this holiday; something about gushing over your partner and sitting there while they gushed over you made me not want to go "all out" for this holiday. I suppose it's stemmed from those elementary school years when we handed out valentines to everybody in class and if you were lucky enough to be "with" someone that year, you expected and got something extra. It was 6th grade when I was given one of those extra large Hershey's kisses, a flower, and a stuffed animal from a red-headed boy I crushed on. I was on top of the world! But it wasn't long before I was being put down in front of my peers and getting snickers and jeers about it. I then couldn't enjoy the gifts I received and actually felt guilty and 'bad' about having them! Were they kids being kids? Maybe. Retrospectively, I think they were jealous and that was their best way to deal with it. Either way, I clearly still recall this memory as if it were yesterday and perhaps this is the reason why, when I receive gifts of any sort on this holiday, I love it but receive it with a grain of salt... awaiting some unplanned moment of disappointment.

So now that I've depressed you...! (Ha ha!) In all sincerity, I've since enjoyed this day once I started dating men for whom I was on the hunt for "marriage potential". Now that I'm married to a wonderful and loving man, I suspect I will be more and more involved in celebrating this (very commercialized) holiday.

Around the Internet, craft stores, and neighbor's doors, I've noticed that wreaths have been a go-to form of celebrating all holidays and seasons in the year. I saw a lot of beautiful wreaths for fall and Christmas but I was in no position to attempt an art project I had zero experience in. However, I want to learn and I want to practice making wreaths because -darn it- I want to make some pretty awesome fall/winter wreaths this year!

So here is my Valentine's Day wreath, made by moi!

I bought 2 of the larger Dollar Tree wreaths (shown below), unwrapped one of them and then re-wrapped the branches around the 2nd wreath to make it appear heartier.

I then stained the wreath using this technique from homeheartcraft.com (saw it on Pinterest).It did the job and gave it a great rustic look. But I have to be honest, I hated the smell of the steel wool with the vinegar... I felt like I was tasting it, yuck! I don't think I will use this techniques (as useful as it was for my project) again and instead just buy a small can of stain. I can still smell the steel wool on the wreath when I have it near my face!

After the wreath was dried, I gathered the fake flowers I got from both the Dollar Tree and Michaels and arranged them on the wreath. I cut the stems so I could easily push them through the wreath and wrap to hold in place. I glue-gunned excess leaves to fill it out and give pops of green. Then I painted the 'love' plaque I bought from Michaels red and hot-glued it to the wreath. Done!

Aside from the few days it took to get the staining right, all the arranging and hot-gluing only took a couple hours and was hung up on the door well before my hubby came home from work <3

Upgrade Your Laundry Basket!

Becoming a newlywed did not dramatically open my eyes to the world of men, especially having moved up to Oregon with my now husband 1 1/4 years before our wedding. But what it did do is make me more "aware" of his habits and how the not-so-cute ones needed solutions! One habit my husband has is taking off his dirty clothes and/or used towels and leaving them in a very specific corner of the guest bathroom. He also does this in a pile next to his side of the bed. Once he feels like doing laundry, he grabs both piles and washes them. Yes, we have laundry baskets in the walk-in closet. No, he doesn't use them.

So what is a new wife to do? Place the laundry basket in the bathroom of course!

Now, we have plenty of those white plastic baskets. They're cheap, they serve their purpose. I don't "need" to spend more money on those fancy wicker laundry baskets, but I do need to make those plastic baskets look good in our home, especially if it's in a guest-visited space.

My solution? Turn that white plastic basket into a frugal-girl's version of those expensive wicker ones!

What you'll need:

-Laundry Basket
-Spray Paint in color of choice (I grabbed Krylon Fusion in Hammer Finish brown; leftover from spray-painting some pots for our potted plants)
-and old fitted sheet (or buy a new cheap one)
-Needle and thread!

Make sure the basket is cleaned before you spray paint. Follow directions on spray can and do at least 2 coats with plenty of dry time in between. You don't have to worry about spraying the inside of the basket or that top lip as these will be covered by the sheet. Your end result should look something like this:

 

 

Now grab your fitted sheet and measure the sheet the approximate length of the basket's height from the fitted corners at the lip of the basket, down the center of the sheet towards the bottom of the basket. Cut across the sheet. 

 

With both corners in your hand, find the small loose ties from the sheet's threading and tie together.

 

With the sheet inside out, align the sides of the sheet together with right-sides facing each other. Pin together and sew. You now have a cylinder!

 

Place the sheet in your plastic basket inside out facing you. Fold the bunched-corners of the sheet over the lip, this makes the "right side" of the sheet now in the "inside" of the basket when you look in it.

 

Play with the sheet and figure out how you want it gathered going towards the bottom of the basket. Pin in place. Remove the sheet and sew the circumference of your material to hold the gathering in place. Place back in the basket.

 

You probably have a lot of material at the bottom of your basket at this point. To smooth the bottom out, take one semi-circle section of material and place it over the excess material. Pin in place, you will cut the excess material that is laying underneath it and sew the right-sides together, leaving you with a nice circular bottom.

 

 

 

Place it in your basket again and you're done! Now show it to your husband and tell him to start using the new basket and if you're lucky, he may be inspired to do the laundry too!

 

 

Scarf Organizer from Wall Votive Holder

If you're like me you own many scarves to keep warm during the fall and winter seasons. Problem is where to put them when they're not in use that makes them easy to find and wrinkle free. You've seen the "Scarf Hangers" just about everywhere, even DIY ones with people tying ribbon around circles, then to a hanger to complete the look. While this is perfectly fine and serves the purposes one would need for all their scarves, I really never was fond of that method/product. One reason I don't care for it is because it hangs on the bar in your closet with all your clothes or jackets, therefore it's sideways. So, automatically you have to pull it out to see all the scarves you have, pick out your scarf, then place the hanger back. Another reason why I don't like it is that scarves create bulk which means you'll have bulk in your closet. Lastly, it doesn't matter who is selling or making it, I think the design is ugly!

So when I decided to stop rolling my scarves in drawers and finally hang them up, I was determined to come up with a cheap -yet appealing- way of organizing my lovelies. First thing I did was hit the Goodwill for a cheap find! What I found was a votive candle holder made out of iron that hangs from the wall for only $6.99!



The hoops made for candles is perfect for scarves!

 

It didn't come with the glass that the candles would be placed in, which is why I think it was much cheaper, but if you find one that does just take them out and upcycle into something else in your home.

 

Just hang the votive holder where you'd like your scarves to hang like the wall in your closet or hall closet, entryway, bathroom, etc (I chose in my bathroom on an empty lifeless wall). The nice thing about this design is it is a prettier way to display your scarves.

Hang your scarves however you feel hangs best and you're done!

I organized mine with 1-2 scarves/ring by color. To keep from the scarves hanging too long (gotta keep things that dangle away from my cat!), I folded them in half and looped through the rings.

Enjoy yourself some wall art made with your displayed scarves!

Do it Yourself Family Name Banner

One of the 1st projects I wanted to do after our wedding was celebrate my new last name. While browsing the infamous Pinterest, I came across a DIY project from the one and only Michaels website: Family Name Banner . Project materals are:

-Wood plaques in size, shape, quantity you need for each letter of word/name
-Wood letters small enough to fit inside face of plaques
-Paint or Spraypaint
-Cardstock or patterned paper
-Glue
-Ribbon (or consider rope or twine?) long enough for a few inches above/below the plaques with 1/2" gaps inbetween the plaques
-D ring
-Something to hang it on
-Stapler

I followed the directions almost exactly as posted, so you should too and get the same results! The only variance I came across was finding a darn "D" ring. I couldn't find it. Nope. So what does a girl do when she's tired of making laps around a craft store finding something that isn't there? She improvises! I grabbed 2 of my metal hoop bracelets and folded the ribbon over them, then stapled the ribbon together. I hung the banner on a picture frame hook that I had also painted black to hide the 'metal' appearance. Here's my end results:

 

I used leftover ribbon from the giftwrap I saved from wedding presents, something to give it a sentimental tie-in from the wedding. To hide the appearance of the staples from the ribbon, I placed a stick-on gem that I had leftover from a DIY bridesmaid gift project.

So while I was doing this project, I decided to create another one that would go with the colors of our living room.

For this one, I spray painted the plaques a metal brown color and chose different, yet complimenting, cardstock. I bought white letters and retouched the scratches with white paint. I also glued leftover lace I had from my DIY lace wedding shoes on top of the ribbon for a more feminine look. A bow made of more lace on the top hook perfects the look! As you can see, I like to recycle all my leftover materials into new projects.

Needless to say, my husband came home to both on the walls and loved them!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

I know there's a blog out there for just about everything and everyone, so thanks so much for visiting mine. I'm humbled. The goal of my blog is not for fame or to get a million views, etc., in fact I am a little too busy and a little too much of a procrastinator to do this full-time to expect a ton of views! ;-)
What I do want to do is share my DIY projects and various other life-simplifying tutorials while I attempt to make my place my home. I believe every place can have that "home" feel, whether you're renting a room or an apartment, or have bought a home and more! So for another purpose of my blog you will see the difference between decorating a rented apartment, of which there are limitations to what can be done, to the decorations and projects that will (and can) be done to our future home.

A little about me: I'm recently married and 1solid (and I hope, eternal) year shy of turning the big 3-0. I'm a nurse and when I find that spare time on my days off to do something, it's usually craft-related and targetted towards decorating the apartment I share with my loving husband. Speaking of my husband, he has encouraged me to keep making things for our 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment so that when we finally upgrade and buy a house, we'll have enough "stuff" to fill it with! I also like to explore with makeup, beauty, and fashion trends. There may be 1 or 2 tutorials on those just to change things up a bit. I must warn that I have no training or professional knowledge in decorating, design, miscellaneous household upkeeps, cosmetics, or even fashion. Some things are trial and error, some things are well observed or studied from other bloggers or articles.

I hope you enjoy my blog and feel free to leave comments or questions!