Monogrammed Picture Frame

Recently I shopped my house and moved a candle holder from a small shelf in our master bedroom to our living room, leaving me an empty shelf.  I thought it would be fun to add a personal touch to our bedroom and thought that a monogrammed picture frame would be perfect. 

Supplies:

Picture frame

Scrap piece of radiator grill 

Vinyl

Scrapbook paper

(Had all of the supplies on hand, so a free update.  Love when this happens!)

I used my Cricut to create my monogram.  Used transfer taper to transfer the vinyl directly onto the glass of the picture frame.  Cut to size and spray painted the radiator grill white.  Cut to size scrapbook paper and assembled all together.

Quick, simple, project that makes just the statement I was looking for.   

  



Toy Bin Update

We have had a simple brown laundry basket that I purchased at Target acting as a toy bin in my son's room for all of his stuffed animals.  It was working out fine but there was one thing I didn't like about it, he never knew what was in there unless everything was taken out. 



I wanted something that would be more functional allowing for him to see just what stuffed animals were in there.  I found a wire laundry basket at Home Goods, took out the liner, and tossed all his stuffed animals in it.  Now he can see just what he has in there.  

 We have had it for about a week now and it is funny he is playing with stuffed animals that we haven't seen in months.  This is a win win for both of us!

Jar Labels

I have slowly been trying to clean out and reorganize my pantry.  I think whenever you can take food out of the boxes that they come in and put them in canisters or jars it is much more appealing to the eyes.  I always try and put cereal, baking goods, snacks, pasta, and rice in jars.  Recently I decided that labels would not only improve the look but will also help with keeping everything more organized.  

Supplies:

Chalkboard contact paper

Cricut Mini

Chalk Marker (new best friend)

    

Yes, have you heard of these things?  I like making labels with chalkboard contact paper because they are  easy to change and you can reuse them.  But my one MAJOR complaint was the chalk would always rub off and the label would be half gone.  That was until I heard of a chalk marker!  Once I write with the chalk marker it STAYS put until I wipe it off with water and a paper towel.  Anyone using chalkboard labels I highly recommend getting one.  I got mine at Joann's.

Using my Cricut Mini I cut out the shape and sizes I needed for my jars.

 

Cured it by rubbing chalk all over the label.

 

Wiped them clean with a paper towel.

Placed them on my jars and wrote what was in each one.

 

Simple, quick update!

Organizing Mail

I don't know about you but I love it when my counters are completely clean and there is no clutter on them.  Unfortunately this doesn't happen as often as I would like.  Mail is something that seems to always end up on the counter and lives there for a few days.  After looking around the blog world for inspiration I thought that a filing system would work best for our family. 

I already had this photo caddy from Pottery Barn that I wasn't using.   

Bought a pack of cute file folders from Target.

 

Came up with a list of what files I needed: In Mail, To Do, To File, To Pay, one for myself, one for my husband, and one to hold my coupons until I put them in my coupon file/ binder. 

Used my new Mini Cricut that I am loving to make the labels and glued them on with mod podge (first experience w/mod podge).

I knew the fabric that was in the 3 picture spots wasn't going to work but I wasn't sure what I should do.  I thought about putting some black and white pictures of the family in them. Or using the extra blue folder I have and cutting squares out of it (but wasn't sure if I wanted to keep the folder in case I needed to make another file).  I decided to play around with the Cricut some more and made a monogram with my husband and my initials. 

Since we have been using this new system for our mail the amount of clutter on the counters has gone down a lot.  Everything has a home now and I can quickly put things away in the correct folder until I have more time to complete the full task.

However, I am not 100% happy with how the monogram turned out.  I think I will maybe try to put some family pictures in it.  What do you think?  Any suggestions?

DIY: Refinishing a Chair

It seems like shopping at thrift stores is becoming more and more common, but I never really understood why. But as I have gotten more and more into design, I thought that maybe I could do what I see all over the tv decorating shows or on blogs and take something not so great and turn it into my own little master piece. A few months ago I did some research and found out that I had a goodwill store close to our house.  So the kids and I ventured out and made our first trip to Goodwill.  I went with an idea that I wanted to refinish a chair.  It seems like when we have a lot of people over for dinner, we don't have enough seating.  Therefore, if I could find a chair it would be a fun experiment and if it turned out I could actually use it in the house.  When we got there we headed for the furniture and to my surprise I found a chair for $3.99.  It was a little wobbly but I thought that I could just tighten up the screws and it would be fine.  It also had plastic on the seat so I thought maybe it wasn't as dirty as other things ( I am a little germaphobic) and decided to buy it.  I started carrying it up to the front in one hand while pushing a double stroller in the other when a worker told me that I only need to take the tag up to the front (good to know for future purchases).  I was so excited and couldn't wait to get started.

This is what it looked like when I bought it:

DIY steps to refinishing the chair: (didn't take pictures because hadn't started this blog)

1. Using a sander, sanded the wood part of the chair.
2. Dusted off and washed the chair with a slightly wet rag.
3. Took the seat cushion off and tighten any screws that need to be tighten.
4. Applied 3 light coats of spray paint letting them dry for 24 hours between each coat ( it was cold outside)
5. Using pliers, took out all the staples that were holding the plastic as well as the fabric to the wooden frame of the seat.
6. Measured the wood frame to see how much fabric and foam I would need to recover the seat.  Add a few inches, my philosophy:  better to have too much then not enough.
7. Lay the foam on top of the wood frame and trace with a pencil the shape of the seat.  Cut the foam to that shape.
8. Cut the fabric, making sure the pattern is centered and how you want it to look.  Take into consideration how big your foam padding is and add enough fabric so that is will cover it.
9. Lay the fabric down, then the foam, and finally place the wood frame on top.  Using a staple gun pull the fabric up and over the wood frame and staple away.  Make sure you are pulling the fabric tight as you go because you don't want to to bunch and it will loosen up over time. 
10. When doing the corners (this gave me some trouble)  the best way I figured was to wrap it like you are wrapping a present.  Lay the one side of the fabric down and wrap the other part over it.
11. Screw the newly covered seat cushion onto to the chair.  
12. Have a seat!  

Finished Chair

I am very happy with how my first thrift store project turned out and can't wait to do another.

Upcycling

With little ones we are constantly using straws and I wanted to find a better storage spot for them instead of the box or bag they come in.  I thought about buying a new canister or jar to put them in, but then thought is there anything I have on hand that would work? 

I have been saving old pasta sauce jars and thought this would work great.  I added a simple label from chalkboard contact paper, and viola!  I think this would have taken only 2 minutes if I didn't rewrite "straws" about 15 times.  

Now a much nicer holder for our straws and the best part, free!  Had everything on hand.

From this:

To this:

 

Shoe Organizer

Our house has a no shoe policy so the kids and my shoes go in a basket in the laundry room and my husbands shoes go on a shoe rack outside. But sometimes the shoes don't make it in the basket or the shoe rack and end up on the floor.

So I decided to buy a shoe organizer.

Spent about 5 minutes with the help of my 1 year old son and this is what we ended up with:

Now all of our shoes have their own place on the back of the laundry room door. No more tripping over shoes or digging through the basket trying to find a shoe. I know this will save us time when we are heading out the door and it looks so much neater.