2010 October

Laundry Room Makeover

October 28, 2010 by beth 20 Comments

Does anyone else have an awesome ugly laundry room like me? This room is seriously a catch-all in our house.

Bug spray? Check.

Empty buckets? Check.

Paint? Check.

Why was I in here again? Oh yeah – to wash clothes. That, too.

Our laundry room is boring and dull and has TERRIBLE lighting. Good thing I can just shut the doors and high tail it outta there.

P.S. I had recently reorganized the laundry room – this is the “after” picture…can you imagine how awesome ugly it was before that?!

I’ve never really had the desire to make my laundry room look even a little cute. It’s not that I haven’t seen it done…I just thought I wouldn’t bother because I wouldn’t be making drastic cosmetic changes. We rent our home, but that means we can’t make major changes like adding new cabinets. And I don’t want to shell out lots of $$ to make improvements to some one else’s house, even if I did get permission, because I can’t take the improvements with me when we move. Not really the investment deal I’m looking for.

But, BUT!!, I did a little Internet searching, and Tip Junky had a great post on cute laundry rooms, which got the wheels in my head turning. These ladies transformed their ho-hum rooms into really beautiful spaces. I started to realize I could, too! even if I don’t paint and replace the shelves.

OK, then. This laundry room thing is a go!

So here is my completed laundry room now and a breakdown of how it all went down:

Of course I removed the majority of the crap-o-la to better places. That, alone, was refreshing. I have a pretty standard rule (whether I always follow it or not wink wink) that each item in my home needs a reason and a purpose if it wants to be here. So the items that stayed, and the containers I put them in, were selected pretty much according to that rule.

I shopped my home for all of the accessories in the laundry room. The flower arrangement was in the kitchen, but I love it here. It gives the room a little color, and hydrangeas make me smile.

The glass jar holding powdered detergent was a wedding gift, and the heart-shaped measuring cup came with a set as a birthday present. I found the ceramic tomato dish at a small boutique years ago. It came with three other ceramic vegetables, and one or two were chipped, so they cost next to nothing. I use an artichoke for my spoon rest in the kitchen. The tomato now catches our change.

A few years ago, my grandma sent me an e-mail with her memories of washing clothes with her grandmother before they had a machine. Added to the e-mail was an old recipe for washing clothes an Alabama woman supposedly sent to a bride for a wedding gift. The recipe is crazy! Collect rain water, start a fire to boil the water, scrub your clothes in lye, etc. Then use the cold water to water the garden and the hot water to hand scrub your porch. Wow.

I keep a framed copy of the e-mail up to remind me

how great I really have it!!

For the shelves, I grabbed a few baskets I had around the house. The two large baskets hold items like light bulbs, hammers, and my drill.

On the left side, I tried to figure out how to hide my boxes of detergent booster. Two magazine organizers spray painted gold do the trick.

I placed my dryer sheets in the small basket on the right side of the shelves.

I decided to make art work for the space. My rubbings were just the thing to help continue dispersing my love of all things scrolly throughout the house.

The total cost for my laundry room makeover was $3 for the three black picture frames. Like the Penguins of Madagascar say, “That’s a number I’m willing to live with.”

In case you forgot:

Before:

After:

I really love how the room turned out. I love that it goes with the rest of the house, and I love that if I keep the doors open people won’t want to run and hide. When we move, I can pick up everything and take it with me.

And, of course, I BIG FAT LOVE that it only cost me $3.

This space now makes it just a little easier to wash the clothes. Just a little.

Filed Under: Before and After, Laundry Room

Rubbings

October 26, 2010 by beth 4 Comments

I’m working on two new projects that I am pretty excited about. The first is a small ”accessory” to our home in a place that is rarely decorated. The second project is making over a room that I didn’t think could be decorated…much. I can’t wait to show you both when they’re all done, but for now I’d like to give you a little peek at my artwork for both spaces.

Now if you’ve read my blog for even a second you know I don’t like to spend a boatload of money on things that I could just as easily find or make for free. Spending a bunch of money sometimes takes the creativity and ingenuity out of a project for me – and those are two things that thrill me as much as a puke-inducing roller coaster ride. Call me a weirdo…it wouldn’t be the first time.

So when it came to artwork for my two projects, I knew that I wouldn’t be spending much, if anything. It’s just not how I roll.

I have a large accordion file folder that I keep decorating ideas in, and the other day as I was sifting through the file “Things I Can Make,” I came across an old Better Homes and Gardens article (Nov. 2001) about the art of rubbings. Rubbings are made when you carefully press paper over an item with a raised surface and color over all or part of the surface, making a reproduction of the item. Making a rubbing is easy, and the ideas of what to reproduce are endless.

I’d have to say that for a long time I just thought my Kindergarten teacher invented rubbings. She had all sorts of things for us to transfer – leaves, coins, rubber stamps. (She also played the Ukulele and had a pet owl. Awesome.) But an internet search led me to an article about rubbings in the seventh century of Chinese inscriptions so they could make multiple copies of records. Yeah, so I guess my teacher may not be the inventor after all.

I would have to assume that one of the most popular type of rubbings is tombstone or grave rubbings. On a trip Washington D.C. I saw many people making rubbings of their family members’ names from the war memorials. I’ve also made rubbings from old gravestones when the date was too hard to read.

I like the idea of turning rubbings into art for your home because the price is right

, and you can reproduce images of some of your favorite accessories and put them in multiple places at once.

And as one of three sisters, sharing is a big deal. If one sister has something the others love, you can make a rubbing of it and have one, too. But only when it comes to decorating…I’m not talking clothes or shoes.

For example, when a wonderful family member passed away, I inherited a few pieces of her beautiful flatware. The pattern is simple with flowers, and making a rubbing of some of the utensils is a way to share them with other family members who may have enjoyed meals with our sweet relative but inherited other items.

And when making a rubbing of something like utensils, the colors you use can complement the room you’ll hang the picture in.

I love this scrolly trivet, and it’s raised surface makes it perfect for a rubbing. I’ve chosen it for the art in the room I am making over.

Before I began, I traced the glass of the picture frames I’d be using to help guide the size of my rubbing. You can always color past the frame and cut the picture down to size.

I used pencil in the beginning to get the idea of what the picture would look like. The pencil worked great because it adds depth and becomes part of the background.

I moved on to a black crayon next, and the images really began to stand out.

I made three rubbings of the same trivet but I turned and colored the trivet a little differently each time.

This number 4 is part of the “accessory” project I’ve been working on. I needed medium to large numbers for this project so I went to the hardware store for ideas. And I may or may not have just sat right in the middle of the aisle and made rubbings with the house numbers I liked best. Maybe. I’ll never tell.

Sometimes making a rubbing just doesn’t work out like you’d want it too…like when I tried to use one of my kids’ trains:

No thanks.

What 4 year old made this one? Oh wait, that was me.

Yeah, I don’t love it. Too messy. Luckily I can redo it…

Much better!

Love it in the frame. I’m so excited to show you how this number project turns out!

Rubbings are great because you can make art out of just about anything: jewelry, a license plate, a toy, house numbers , keys…the ideas are endless.

And you can use lead or colored pencil, crayon (regular or metallic), chalk, charcoal, pastels. Most of these items are probably in your home already.

Choosing the paper you use is interesting, too - paper bags, butcher paper, construction paper, printer paper, or scrapbook paper.

Trying to keep the item you are making a rubbing of from moving around can be a little tricky. Tape or sticky clay work well.

Then, when it’s time to mat and frame, try to use similar items to your picture. My black house numbers and scrolly trivet go well with the black frame. Both the black crayon and black frame are about the same matte, which is why I chose the frame for these pictures. A silver frame would look better for the silverware rubbings.

And have I mentioned the price for these great pictures? Fah-ree baby! Nada. Nothing. Especially if you already have some picture frames handy.

Gotta love the free!

P.S. I’m hoping to have the house number project finished sometime this week. Check back soon if you’d like to see how it turned out!!

I’m linking up to It’s So Very Cheri!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Happy Fall Y’all!

October 25, 2010 by beth 2 Comments

Remember the other day when it was summer? And it was really really hot, and swimming was a necessity, and sweating was normal? And remember when football season was just around the corner, and it was almost time for the leaves to turn colors, and cooling off just a hint was just a daydream? Well, I am happy to say it is no longer a daydream – not even in Florida. Fall is HERE!

Thank goodness!

I LOVE this time of year when you can bring a jacket along where ever you go, just in case. I love the sounds of crackling leaves and crackling fires. I especially love hearing football on the TV while a fresh breeze comes through the open windows. Sigh. Love it.

Fall also reminds me that the holidays are near, and I find myself thinking of my wonderful family members that I am so blessed to be related to. I don’t live near any of them, but luckily they’ve passed great ideas and traditions on to me that I can recreate for my own little family. These traditions are some of the things that make my house feel like a home.

My sweet mother-in-law taught me a quick, easy and inexpensive way to make my house smell fresh, homey and fallish. She puts a small pot of water on low heat on the stove. Then she squeezes half of an orange into the pot and adds the orange, a few shakes of cloves, a cinnamon stick (or ground cinnamon), and a little nutmeg.

The mixture can simmer most of the day, and as the water evaporates, more can be added. I love the way this smells like a pumpkin pie is baking, and I’m not gonna lie: When this aroma fills my home, I often forget that today isn’t Thanksgiving day (which is a little funny when it’s the middle of October).

By the wonderful grace of God I have been blessed with THE BEST grandparents E.V.E.R. So much so that many of my friends and other relatives not related to them have adopted my grandparents as their own. I big fat love them with all my heart. My sweet grandpa loves football, and he and my dad (smooches, Dad!) watch football together. They’ve passed down their love of the game to me, and I appreciate a good game (even if I don’t understand some of it). Hook’em Horns!

My grandpa is a big eggnog fan, and he and I are among the crazies that need eggnog like we need water…at least until January when the cruel eggnog people quit selling it. I found eggnog in Target the other day and had to call Grandpa on the phone to tell him “Happy Eggnog Day.” It’s going to be a great couple of months…but not necessarily for my waistline.

My cute grandma has been making caramel apples for YEARS. I can’t remember a Halloween that she hasn’t made them, although I realized the other day that I’ve never actually seen her make them. The yummy apples just magically appear on her counter on Halloween day, and you better not pass one up – it’ll be your loss.

I haven’t ever made caramel apples, so I called her to get a few tips. Grandma saves time by buying the store caramels and puts them in the microwave for a few minutes. She makes sure to have some wax paper down so the apples won’t stick to the tray.

Here are my first caramel apples:

I used kabob sticks instead of craft sticks because I had them on hand. The green apple is for me because I prefer them to red. I made the executive decision to roll two apples in Oreo crumbs for The Hubs and myself. WOW. That was a great choice.

Making caramel apples was much simpler and easier than I thought it would be. It is similar to making chocolate covered strawberries.

Hmmmm. Chocolate caramel strawberries…interesting. I may have to try it.

My cute mom is a fantastic cook, and she is famous for her chocolate chip cookies. Seriously addicting. My mom makes yummy pies for Thanksgiving, too, including pumpkin pie. But I am such a weirdo – I don’t like pumpkin pie. I don’t. Although I try to like it each year, I can’t stand the texture. The flavor is yummy, though, so I’ll eat pumpkin ice cream and shakes. So, taking a cue from my moms cookies and pies, I thought I’d make some pumpkin ice cream sandwiches.

Although the cookies aren’t from scratch like my mom’s, I think they taste AWESOME! I baked pre-made cookie dough with cute ghosties on them and let them cool. This is important because ice cream will be going in between them! Once the cookies cooled, I added a large spoonful of pumpkin pie ice cream, squished them together, and put them on a plate. The plate was then put in the coldest part of my freezer until they hardened. When they were ready to eat – man, what a yummy little snack.

So even though I don’t get to be around some of my favorite people right now, I am happy that I can use a few of their ideas and traditions in my home. It makes the miles feel just a little closer.

I am loving this time of year! Happy Fall Y’all!!!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Skeletons in the Closet

October 20, 2010 by beth 7 Comments

Yeah, so I have a little secret. Not really little – medium to big. Big secret, HUGE headache.

And today I’m ready to share. (Maybe.) K, but you have to promise not to judge, because I am not thrilled to show this off.

I love organization. (Yeah, no. That’s not the secret. Wait for it…) I love when everything has a home and is actually in its place. It drives me a little nutty nutcase funny farm when things are out of order because of lack of organization. (I don’t mean a little cluttered since I have two boys. I’m not trying to be Mommy Dearest here.)

So how I let Pickle’s closet get like this I’ll never know:

Yikes! Scream! Run away!!

Ready for more?

Close your eyes a little if it helps:

Brace yourself…here’s another shot:

Hide your small children!

K, there’s no turning back…here’s the last one:

AHHHHH!!

Once you get over the initial shock that is Pickle’s closet, you need to know that I want help. I need to get this back in normal order. I need to get back in normal order.

I finally decided that I cannot stand for his closet to look like this one.more.~~minute.~~second. So I called in for back-up:

My iPod

and a little diet DP.

I CAN do this.

Bring it.

The items in the closet just need some “assigned seats,” and I’ve got just the thing. I scored this great dresser recently at my friend’s garage sale for $10.

I especially love the detail on the top drawer. I know I want to paint it and add different knobs, but today is not the day. I still need to look at it and let my ideas marinate for a little while. When that happens, then I’ll make the transformations. Until then, this dresser will work wonders in Pickle’s closet.

Now my little man already has drawers for his clothes. He has this Ikea bookshelf, and we keep his everyday clothes in easy pull out drawers.

Image from Ikea.com

But he wears a school uniform, and I like to keep those items separate from his regular clothes. He also needs places for his winter clothes and bed linens.

So cue the drawers!

Linens

School uniform pants and shorts

Winter clothes

(There’s not a lot since we live in Florida!)

When I fold shirts, I like the image facing out so I know what shirt it is. I also keep the tag out so it’s easier to see the size without a bunch of digging.

Now that the clothes and linens are taken care of, I needed to get rid of the huge boxes in Pickle’s closet. I admit it…they all belong to the Hubs and me. Two huge bins are full of books and college papers and yearbooks and blah blah blah. I guess I shouldn’t punish my son for my inability to part with papers I will never need again but can’t seem to get rid of. So, I hauled the bins into my room. The Hubs and I are now forced to look at them until we come to terms with what we REALLY need to keep and what has needed to go for a long time.

And there are some things that don’t even belong in this closet…the car seat should go in J’s closet, since he’ll use it next; wrapping paper needs to go with the other wrapping supplies; Pickle’s rug can go on his floor.

OK, now we’re getting somewhere.

Nice clothes on the left, school uniform shirts on the right.

The next box I dug into is a little bit of a head scratcher…old tapes with great songs, beautiful shells from Key West, old pictures and letters from Junior High, journals from my life mixed with awards from places I don’t even work at anymore.

And these super cute lamp shades from a previous home with a chandelier.

Everything got sorted out, thrown out, put in a new place, or burned (old pictures (the hair!) and letters )

The survivors made it to the bottom drawer. I WILL find a place for these items. I WILL.

My last stop was something I try to avoid. (See what happens when you avoid stuff?) I am NOT a scrapper. I can’t scrapbook to save my life. Luckily my mother-in-law is great at it – she’s made beautiful scrapbooks for my boys. This is what happens when you can’t scrapbook but want to save memories of your kids:

This memory box is FULL of the items I would scrapbook if I liked doing it. Cute school papers. Teeny Tiny diapers. Blanket from the hospital. First haircut in a baggie. I save all the important things, but I throw them in this box. Smack me with a wet noodle and call the Mom Police. I will get it organized and cute someday. Today I will just throw out the things that didn’t really need to be saved and straighten up the rest.

Much better.

And after adding Pickle’s hats to the top of the dresser, I think I’m done!

Ahhh…I feel like I can breathe again! SO much better! Two garbage bags, one charity bag, and three empty (but reusable boxes) later.

Pickle went from this disaster:

To this little slice of organized heaven (at least in my book!):

Update: Pickle was thrilled with his new closet. Finding school clothes is now a breeze. And the memory box is staring me in the face BEGGING me to really get it organized. Stay tuned for that one…

I’m linking up to Between Naps on the Porch

and Sarah’s Before and After Party:

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Family Date Night – Dinner and a Movie

October 16, 2010 by beth 4 Comments

Sometimes taking a family of four out to dinner is fun, and yummy, and a nice break from the day to day.

And sometimes I would rather poke a fork in my eye than to wait in line at a restaurant on a Friday night, wrestle the kids during the long wait for our food, and pay a bunch of money for OK food and OK service.

I also enjoy going to the movies, but the prices lately are getting pretty steep. I don’t mind seeing a good movie, but when I’ve just paid $30 to walk my 18 month old around in a theater lobby, or take my 6 year old to the potty 3 times, it’s a little frustrating to say the least.

Sometimes it’s just as fun, but more relaxing (and ridiculously cheaper), to have dinner and a movie at home. You CAN make it enjoyable, and delicious, and just as special as going out.

This particular night we let Pickle pick our menu and movie. He LOVES spaghetti (he has it every year for his birthday dinner), and he thinks drawing on the table at the Macaroni Grill is the coolest. So I set out to recreate our favorite parts of eating there.

First I covered our table with butcher paper. (Santa got a huge roll @ Ikea for $5. It has lasted all year.)

I also thought of what everyone orders to drink at a restaurant and bought it ahead of time. The Hubs and Pickle like Sprite. The Hubs also orders water, so he got two drinks. I love milk with my spaghetti, but I don’t like the whole or 2% they serve at restaurants, so I don’t order it. But tonight I could. Pickle’s drink even came in a plastic cup with a lid like when we go out.

Munching on bread while waiting for our food is a yummy part of eating out. I made the olive oil dipping sauce we love @ the MG.

Delish!

I especially love salads, and tonight I got to choose my favorite ingredients without having to be that psycho annoying customer: Please hold the cheese. Extra croutons. Dressing on the side.

I also love the banana peppers you find @ some restaurants, but there’s never avocado like I want. And tonight we got our favorite dressings.

“Your wish is my command!” Awesome. Love that kind of service.

Pickle enjoyed drawing on the table throughout dinner.

J loved having the candles lit. My kids are so freakin’ cute.

Seriously.

Usually when we eat out we are ready to go by the end of the meal. Tonight not so much. We stayed at the table and chatted and colored. I learned Pickle wants a blue Snuggie for Christmas.

(What the?)

J and Daddy coloring

Another bonus? J’s surprising crazy diaper. Yikes. Luckily we were home, and he got a bath. (I hate when that happens when we’re out!)

After dinner and baths, we got comfy with blankets and pillows for the movie. Pickle picked out a show from the library for us. (Free movie rentals peeps. New movies. Old movies. Movies you can put on hold. Love the library.)

We bought our favorite movie theater snacks. (Of course diet DP represented!) For less than the price of one large popcorn at the theater, we got enough treats for whole the weekend.