Give a Hoot {After but Before}

Look Who Put a Ring on It

2011-10-01T21:11:00.001-04:00

In the oh so infamous words of Beyonce, "If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it." And guess what folks, he did!

Three weeks ago, on September 9th, we got hitched!

With the forecast predicting flash floods and torrential downpours the entire week leading up to the wedding, the executive decision was made the day before to move it all indoors. With rain clouds looming above threatening our day every step of the way, an insane amount of chaos, and tons of love we were united as one.

We had a small and intimate budget wedding with 40 of our closest friends and family. There was a lot of DIY involved with our wedding, which definitely helped keep the budget in check. I hope to one day share all my DIY projects with you on this blog. In the meantime, I'll just leave you wondering how we pulled it all off with just $6,000. Keep an eye out, I hope to post a budget breakdown one of these days.

You Are Cordially Invited!

2011-08-08T12:26:00.003-04:00

(To maintain some semblance of privacy I've blurred out names and addresses)

In case you can't read the text....

Invitation:

He asked and she said yes...

Or was it the other way around?

However it happened we

BRIDES NAME

and

GROOMS NAME

Invite you to join us

as we get married

on Friday, September 9, 2011

at 2:00PM

CEREMONY VENUE NAME

CEREMONY VENUE ADDRESS

Reception to follow

RSVP Reply Card:

We look forward to celebrating with you!

Please reply by August 19, 2011

We have reserved ____ seats in your honor.

Name _____________________________

____ will dine, dance, and celebrate!

____ will miss out on all the fun!

Total number attending _____

Reception Card:

Following the ceremony

please join us for dinner and dancing

as the celebration continues

at 4:00PM

RECEPTION VENUE NAME

RECEPTION VENUE ADDRESS

I made the map myself by drawing it out on paper, scanning it, then touching it up heavily with paintshop. I also used some rubber stamps to jazz up the plain white envelopes.

Because I'm cool and printed on the back side of the cards:

I left the backside of the invitation blank and used the back side of the Reception Card and Map Poastcard to type up directions to both venues. The back of the RSVP Reply Card has instructions on how to submit your RSVP and what information you can find on our website.

I also ordered some return address labels to use on the outer envelope, but since I had so many leftover I also used them to address the RSVP Reply Card envelope. Because the back of the outer envelope looked so boring I also had some seals custom made that say "We're getting married! 09/09/11."

Because I went with a lightweight invitation suite I didn't have to shell out $.61 for the typical wedding invitation stamp. This baby only required a plain ol' first class stamp.... which I gussied up by using the "Garden of Love" first class stamp.

By this point you are probably wondering how much did these wonderfully beautiful invitations cost?? Not that much if you really want to know. If you're guessing $100, I'd say guess lower... like much lower.... like right under $60.

For a grand total of $59.76, I purchased the following:

50 - 6x9 invitations with white outer envelopes

50 - 5.5x4 RSVP Reply Cards with white envelopes

50 - 5.5x4 Reception Cards with white envelopes

100 - 4x6 postcard maps

140 - Return Address Labels

48 - Envelope Seals

postage

calligraphy Pen

rubber stamps

With the exception of the postage, calligraphy pen, and rubber stamps everything was purchased from Vistaprint. This was the beginning of my love affair with Vistaprint. I plan to dedicate a whole post to the incredibly awesome deals I found at Vistaprint.

Thank You Swagbucks!

2011-08-04T11:40:00.001-04:00

I just purchased my very first DSLR camera!! I'm so excited that I even sprung for 1 day shipping!

Please welcome to the world my new baby. My pride and joy. The fruit of my loins, er scratch that... let's just stick with pride and joy. The Canon EOS Rebel T3 is the most recent entry-level camera for beginners that Canon has come out with.

You're probably wondering how my frugal nature justified such an expenditure. Well, let me tell you the ways!

I only paid $172 out of pocket for this baby!! How? Back in January I joined a reward program called Swagbucks. I've mentioned Swagbucks before, but didn't really dive deep into what it's about.

Essentially you earn Swagbucks by using their search engine, completing special offers, watching videos, completing surveys, and so much more. You can then redeem these Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards.

The simplest way to earn is to install their toolbar onto your browser and use it to search, every once in a while you'll be rewarded with a couple of Swagbucks, usually on average between 7 to 11 points. You can earn a lot of Swagbucks by completing free Special Offers, most of the time it's as simple as submitting your email other times you have to click thru a bunch of offers to get the points. It's seriously addicting!!

I had $360 worth of Amazon gift cards to use towards my order. $125 of that came right from Swagbucks. The rest of the gift card balance was thanks to a $50 gift card I received as a graduation gift, $62 from a credit card reward program, $89 from Amazon's textbook buyback program, $20 LivingSocial Amazon gift card, and $27 from Coinstar redemptions.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go join Swagbucks now! Use my referral code and I'll earn extra points too!

Pictures on this blog are going to be so much better now!

It's Aliiiiiiiiive!

2011-06-07T14:43:00.003-04:00

A lot has happened since the last time I posted on this blog. I don't want to bore you so I'll give you a run down real fast.

Two bathrooms were remodeled. A used toilet sat in the kitchen for 2 months. Made our engagement official. Set the date. Lots of wedding planning. Traveled to Miami for a funeral. Sad face. Won free engagement photos. Finished nursing school. Graduated nursing school. Happy dance. Working on a resume. Blah face. Hosted our families for 2 weeks. Fiance broke my glasses with his foot. Angry face. Can't see well. Bought new glasses. Joined a gym. Went from a PC to a MAC. Confused face.

That about sums it up.

Here's a peak at our engagement pictures.

I was thinking of maybe incorporating the wedding planning into this blog. It's a little off topic, but a lot of it is DIY and will totally fit in to the do it cheap theme I've got going on. I haven't decided yet.

What do you think? Should I incorporate a few wedding posts into my blog?

Half Bath Update

2011-02-17T05:29:00.001-05:00

Work on the half bath is happily progressing, albeit rather slowly.

Saturday we laid the cement board and Sunday we began tiling. We tiled well into the late evening when we realized our neighbors might not enjoy the roar of the tile saw at 10pm. So she sits awaiting for the more technical cuts around the door to be cut.

I took this picture around midnight so the lighting sucked. I'm sure the fact that it's an iPhone picture also contributes to the suckiness in quality. I tend to drain and never charge the battery/spare batteries of both of my digital cameras. And that is so not a good representation of the tile color.

Next topic of business...

I don't know if you thrifty bloggers have already taken advantage of this deal... but Lowe's has a pretty sweet promotion going on right now, the Lowe's Tax Refund Card.

Essentially, you buy a Tax Refund Card with a starting amount between $500 - $4,000 and on March 18th Lowe's will credit 10% of the original card amount to your card. In my case I bought a $600 card, so on March 18th $60 will be credited to my card. It's not a trillion bucks, but it will at least buy me a couple gallons of paint. But if you happen to be the lucky owner of a 10% off coupon from Lowe's or Home Depot you can double your profit! (That was your cue to get a change of address packet from the post office)

If only I had known about this promotion 3 weeks ago, I could have banked some serious dough. By the time this promotion rolled around we had already dropped one thousand bones at Lowe's buying tiling supplies and 3 new toilets.

I have tons of projects in the works with none completed thanks to the insane amount of schoolwork and time I've had to dedicate to schooling this past week. C'est la vie!

Did you buy a Tax Refund Card? If so, what are you going to use it for?

Projectpalooza

2011-02-07T18:39:00.001-05:00

We are in the midst of an all out project fest. Last night Eric said (and I quote) "That's it we are limiting ourselves to one project at a time, I don't even want to come home anymore!"

My sentiments exactly.

We (mainly, me) are working on 5 fairly HUGE projects at once. the half bath and master bathroom, the stairs, painting the basement, and painting a new credenza. i.am.in.sane.

The pictures suck. I used my iPhone. Too lazy to grab digicam.

What you see when you open the front door

Removing linoleum floors.fun.

Ready for some tile

The kitchen mess

More kitchen mess

The dog perched upon kitchen mess

The stairs that I am slowly refinishing... very slowly.

Bathroom vanity being painted in the living room and the bathroom sink just hanging out

Cabinets drying after a coat of paint... right in front of the tv, for your viewing pleasure :)

Shoot me now.

Look What I found!

2011-02-01T15:04:00.001-05:00

Craig and his List finally came through! After months and months of scouring posts and emailing strangers I finally got my grubby little hands on a mid-century modern credenza!

I was so excited to get her that I practically carried her out without paying the guy. He had to remind me fork over the money first. Doh.

This is what 75 clams got me.

Isn't she beautiful??

I love how you open the drawers!

She also has these really cool bronze insets on each corner. I have no clue how to pop them off though. I so don't want to paint over them!

While giving her a good clean with some Clorox wipes, her coat of poly started to come off..... Ugh Oh.

These are some pictures her ex-owner sent me before our cash exchange rendezvous went down.

I already bought primer and paint. I want to tackle her today.right now.this instant. But I don't know how to get those damn insets off.

I still can't believe I actually found something awesome on Craigslist! The guy originally wanted a C-note ($100), but I bartered with him and we finally agreed on 75 clams.

Have you found anything great on Craigslist recently??

And So It Begins...

2011-01-25T17:07:00.000-05:00

Operation Our Bathrooms Need a Major Overhaul

In my bestest most creepiest Count voice: That's one, two, three, ahahahahaha toilets.

We're right smack dap in the very middle of ~~destroying~~ beautifying our bathrooms.

What's left to do in the half bathroom:

Swap out drain trap for sink

Install brand new toilet that flushes!

Tile floor

Install new baseboards

What's left to do in the guest bathroom:

Wait for tub valve part to arrive and finish installing

Install brand new toilet that flushes!

Tile floor

Install new baseboards

Paint stripes on wall

What's left to do in the master bathroom:

Everything! Ugh.

I'll post some before pictures of the master bathroom at some point.

Junk in the Trunk

2011-01-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

That's what was in my trunk last night after a thrift shop run. Junk.

I found some more junk, but I had to practice self restraint. Really, what was I going to do with a landscape painting of trees for $3? Granted, it was an original canvas painting with no frame for CHEAP.... but come on... trees? My inner conscience keep screaming at me "that doesn't fit the decor in your house, Gaby!!" Alas, I surrendered and put it down.

This is all the crap that I found and did bring home.

1. Wine Chiller from Sharper Image.... this thing retails for $100, I got it for $5!!
2. Lamp Base ... $5 and totally perfect for the guest bedroom.
3. Bronze candelabra... $1 but needs a good cleaning.
4. Christmas tree cloche... $1.50
5. Roll of textured wallpaper... $3 ... omg omg omg omg, SCORE!

For the GRAND TOTAL of $16.53!

Featured Where??

2011-01-20T12:52:00.000-05:00

So I was just checking my stat counter and saw hundreds of hits from Facebook and Twitter. My blog isn't even on Facebook or Twitter! I'm not even on Twitter! Facebook yes, but Twitter no. I started to search my referring links and found the answer! Amy from Mod Podge Rocks featured two of my Mod Podge projects (Cabinet Doors and Mosaic Wall Art) on Mod Podge Rock's Twitter and Facebook pages. Check them out here: Twitter and Facebook.

Thanks Amy!

Big Money, No Whammies!

2011-01-19T17:20:00.001-05:00

I've been recruited into the shameless cult of Swagbucks followers. I'm obsessed!

For those who aren't in the know, but want to be in the know..

Swagbucks.com is the web's premier rewards site. Powered by Prodege LLC, Swagbucks.com allows web users to earn virtual currency by doing the things they do every day - search the web, shopping at their favorite retailers, and by engaging in other activities such as phone recycling, submitting polls, and completing special offers. Swagbucks.com is the only place on the web to get what you want without ever having to spend a dime.

I joined exactly one week ago and I've already redeemed Swag Bucks for TWO, count them - TWO, Amazon.com $5 gift cards. I'm totally stoked!You can redeem your points for tons of merchandise and gift cards.... like Home Depot! We all like Home Depot around here :)

If you want to join just click on the image above. It will take you to their site using my referral link. Each new member gets 30 Swag Bucks for signing up and when you refer friends you'll win Swag Bucks along with them. For each person you refer, you can win up to 1,000 Swag Bucks!

For those you of avid Groupon followers, you can earn Swag Bucks for buying Groupons if you link to Groupon through the Swagbucks website.

If you are skeptical about joining because you think it might be a scam... I can assure you it is not. Swagbucks is completely 100% legit!

Keep 'Em Comin'

2011-01-19T11:54:00.004-05:00

I've slowly been making a dent in my cabinet door surplus by repurposing them into wall art. Here is yet another installment.

I hung these bad boys in the master bedroom right by the master bathroom. The intention is that random clothes that get thrown on the floor will get hung up instead. A girl can only hope.

Here's an action shot of our robes and hats hanging out.

A couple close up's of the knobs I used.

And a side profile just for kicks.

Supplies

3 cabinet doors ( from Ikea)

white semi-gloss paint

6 d-ring hangers

6 knobs (from Michael's)

wrapping paper

Mod Podge

Painting Pyramids

drill with bits

Ignore the huge "E" and "G" letters. That idea didn't work out.

I started off by giving each cabinet door about 6 coats of paint. The painters pryramids mentioned above are the absolute best thing ever invented. Hands down. I suggest every one should invest in some! But watching paint dry for hours not so much fun. After it dried I drilled pilot holes for my knobs and screwed in some D-ring hangers onto the back each door. Then I Mod Podged the wrapping paper onto the front. After they were dry I screwed in the knobs and hung them up.

MOD PODGE TIP

The wrapping paper kept wrinkling all over the door, but then I found out the trick to getting it on without wrinkles. Too bad I figured it out on the third cabinet door. The trick is to apply the Mod Podge to the paper and then let it dry for like a minute until it's tacky to touch - NOT wet. Then you just lay it down and flatten it out. You should now have little to no wrinkles!

See, no wrinkles!

COST BREAKDOWN

3 cabinet doors from Ikea = $5

Wrapping paper (Hobby Lobby) = $5

6 knobs (Michael's) = $5 (used coupon and got them for 80cents each)

6 d-ring hangers = $4

semi-gloss white paint = already had

Mod Podge = already had

TOTAL COST = $19

PARTY HARDY

DIY Mosaic Wall Art

2011-01-18T16:00:00.009-05:00

Inspired by Remodelaholic.

Sometime in June I picked up all the supplies and set to work. Well, let me start by telling you this is one hell of a project to take on. For days I sat at the dining room table (while watching late night Lifetime movies of course) gluing each little square on to the board. Like most projects, I quickly became bored of it and set it aside in the basement for months.

But alas there comes a time when you start another project that then fuels you to complete your unfinished projects. You see, Thanksgiving was nearing and we were expecting a house full of guests so that basement bedroom needed to get done. That meant either I finish the mosaic wall art or trash it. So I decided ~~I can't throw anything away~~ I might as well finish it.

The instructions posted on the link above are pretty straightforward. however, I did tweak them a little to fit my needs.

Step 1: Gather your supplies. I chose to use an artist's canvas because I found it easier and cheaper then going to the hardware store, having them cut a piece wood for me, painting it, and then having to rig framing hardware onto the board. For this project I used:

8 sheets of 12x12 cardstock in varying colors/textures

one artist's canvas in size of your choice (it's okay to use the type with staples on the sides)

paper trimmer

Mod Podge

paint brush

Step 2: Cut your sheets of cardstock down to 1"x12" strips, then down to 1"x1" squares. For the 24x24 canvas, I ended up only needing six 1"x12" strips of each of the eight colors.

Step 3: Start gluing! I tried using a glue stick at first, but that didn't work so I just ended up using Mod Podge. And because I'm a horrible blogger I didn't take any pictures. But I did sketch something up in paint for you. I essentially started at one corner and worked off that, like this:

One problem I did encounter was that my cutting skills weren't 100% precise. Some squares were off by 1/1,000,000 of a millimeter (total exaggeration, of course) and that would throw off the straight edge that the squares create. So instead of just cutting new squares I would search all 576 squares (I didn't actually count the squares. I just did the math and yes, I actually do know how to do math) to find one that would fit next to the stupid square.

The craft store discounted this canvas because it had a tear, but the squares covered it up nicely. Win-win!

Step 4: Continue gluing until you have covered the entire face of the canvas. Now you want to cover the sides of your canvas that are still visible. To cover the frayed corners of the canvas I just folded a square in half and glued it over the 90degree corner.Then glued over it with another square to continue the pattern.

The sides of my canvas were actually 1-1/2" wide so instead of cutting the squares to fit I just glued them on and folded the excess over the edge of the canvas. I found this method made the lines look cleaner.

Step 5: Once all squares have been glued take the paint brush and slap on a layer of Mod Podge across the entire face and sides of the canvas. Let dry.

Step 6: Hang and enjoy!

Right now it's just hanging on a bare wall, but if Craig and his List would stop trying to sell me crap dressers or extremely over priced dressers then I might be able to remedy the situation. Come on Craig, I'm counting on you!

COST BREAKDOWN

24x24 Canvas - $10 (it was discounted due to the canvas being ripped)

Mod Podge - $6

8 sheets of 12x12 cardstock in the colors of your choice - $4

GRAND TOTAL = $20

PARTY HARDY

I'll Pay You...

2011-01-17T13:37:00.000-05:00

...to come caulk my bathroom. Seriously, if you had to ask me what the one thing I absolutely hate the most about home remodeling it would have to be caulk. I hate it. Despise it. And the worst thing about it is that we both hate caulking and we both suck at it.

In the past 8 months, we've caulked the same shower three times. The crap keeps shrinking and cracking. Last night I caulked it, came back 3 hours later to see it had already started shrinking... so I added another layer of caulk. Ugh, I hate it.

I mean it. I hate the stuff. Around here I'm always the one to say "We can do it ourselves, we don't need to pay someone to do it!" Well, I've found my Kryptonite and for all of you super villains out there it's caulk.

I'll really pay someone to come caulk the bathroom. For reals.

Cabinet Door < 3

2011-01-14T17:27:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to show you really quickly another cabinet door I found at Ikea and subsequently made into wall art.

I bought this when we first move in and I was still wet behind the ears in the junk-reviving department. There were about 4 or 5 of these, but I only grabbed one. I keep kicking myself in the rear for not buying more.

It is essentially a glass door with frosted/etched squares. I love how you see the shadows of the squares on the wall behind it.

I just added a couple of D-Ring Hangers to the back of the cabinet door and hung it on the wall. Didn't even change a single thing about it.

I love it when reviving junk is so simple. Don't you?

COST BREAKDOWN

Cabinet Door = $8

D-ring hangers = $1

TOTAL COST = $9

Aww Crap.

2011-01-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

It appears that I unknowingly stole the owl I use in my header from Twitter. Apparently it's the image that pops up when your account has been suspended. I guess it's time to find a new owl before anyone realizes what I've done. Back to the drawing board.

Dream On Until Your Dream Comes True

2011-01-13T14:39:00.012-05:00

Every single time I do an Ikea run I come home with a couple random cabinet doors from the "As Is" department. I have about 8 of them sitting the basement collecting dust. Like seriously. They are covered in dust.

A couple days ago while at Hobby Lobby I found a metal dream sign that was on sale for 50% off. I snagged it up thinking it would work well in the guest bedroom.

Well once I came home and started browsing my cabinet door inventory I realized one door was practically the same exact color of the furniture in the master bedroom. Guess, the guest bedroom won't have a dream sign afterall.

So this....

Turned into this...

I used small dabs of Liquid Nails to adhere the dream sign to the cabinet door and attached some D-Ring Hangers to the back of the cabinet so I could hang it on the wall.

And just because here's an action shot of the bricks, books, and Costco sized bottle of vegetable oil I piled on the sign to "clamp" it down while the liquid nails dried.

COST BREAKDOWN

Cabinet Door = $1

Dream Sign = $7

Liquid Nails = Already Had

2 - D-Ring Hangers = $2

TOTAL COST = $10

PARTY HARDY

The Downside of Owning a Home

2011-01-12T18:39:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd keep it real. This is what my house looks like right now at this very moment thanks to our toilet overflow snafu that occurred last week. The house still remains in disarray because we had to wait for an insurance adjuster to come out and see for himself the damage. The water restoration company we contracted ended up ripping out the baseboards, removing the carpet padding, and cutting holes into our ceiling to clean up all the water.

The bathroom where it all began

Dining room all cleared out

The holes they made to dry out the subfloors and the water stains left behind on the ceiling.

You can see how the carpet dips a little without the padding underneath - hence the unevenness of the floor.

Living room with the dining table, chairs, and buffet. Do notice the pine needles everywhere. We had just taken down the Christmas and didn't have a chance to vacuum before the flood.

Living room mess, everything that wasn't furniture sort of just got chucked into this space... including the dog.

Half bathroom baseboard mess

The view of the basement as you enter our split level foyer. Everything that was in the basement storage area had to be cleared out.

Has anyone else ever had something like this happen? Pleeeeease tell me I'm not the only one!

DIY Subway Art

2011-01-11T13:13:00.019-05:00

We ride the Metro into Washington DC every once in a while and have become quite familiar with their map, how to work the metro cards, and which way to exit the station. If you've ever ridden the DC Metro you know there's a little bit of sarcasm sprinkled onto that last sentence. Anyways, I was ~~stalking~~ browsing Etsy a while ago and came across this piece:

bigNickelgraphics Etsy Shop

It was love at first sight and then hate settled in when my eyes glanced at the price. A whopping $130 + shipping. Well, that is just absolutely unacceptable. I could have sprung for the $32 20x20 poster, but damnit I wanted the canvas.

Being so thrifty and cool (don't deny it), I made my very own for a sliver of the actual price! In fact I saved $114!

COST BREAKDOWN
24x24 canvas -$14
paint (I already had most of the colors on hand) - $2
Mod Podge - already had on hand
TOTAL COST = $16

FEATURED ON

PARTY HARDY

Quick tutorial and more pictures after the jump.

I gathered my supplies:

1 - 24x24 gallery wrapped canvas

Acrylic paint in the colors of your choice (For the DC Metro Map I used red, orange, blue, yellow, and green)

Brushes of various sizes and textures

Mod Podge

white printer paper

scissors

pencil and eraser

tape

First I found a Washington DC Metro map that had a high enough resolution so it wouldn't be totally pixelated when I printed it out. Next you want to erase any text or unnecessary crap on the image (you don't have to do this, but it makes it so much easier when you're cutting out the tracks and end up accidentally cutting something you shouldn't have because of all the clutter). Message me if you want that image file and I'll email it to you. Next you want to make sure that the dimensions of your image will stretch out across your canvas. My canvas is 24x24 so I resized my image down to 28x28 so it would "wrap" around the canvas, like this:

Next you want to print out the image. My image came out to 12 pages. Take your scissors and start cutting out the tracks. Once you've cut them out, start piecing them together using tape.

Now you're ready to adhere your map to the canvas. For this part I used some blue sticky putty, but tape will do just fine. I chose to have my map somewhat centered, mainly because the DC Metro System is a tiny clustered ball of lines with spider legs.

At this point take your pencil and trace around the lines, don't worry about it being perfect. After your traced the whole map, take your eraser and erase all the lines from the canvas. If you used a #2 pencil like I did then the lines won't completely erase, they'll just be a faint gray. Take it from me, I made the mistake of not erasing before painting. Luckily for me I realized my mistake after painting only one line, unfortunately for me it was the yellow line I had painted (and you can't erase once there's a layer of paint over the pencil marks). I erased the rest of the lines and just ended up gooping on globs of yellow paint on the edges to cover the pencil lines.

Start painting your lines! I added some action lines because #1 my "steady hand" resembles that of a 3 year old and #2 it's damn cool!

Next add a thin layer of Mod Podge to seal it up (you don't really have to do this, but I plan on hanging this in the half bathroom so I'd rather be safe than sorry). Tah-Dah!

Technical Difficulties

2011-01-10T13:30:00.001-05:00

My laptop screen died a miserable death the day before yesterday. The hard drive is still intact, but the screen is just a white pixelated mess. See what I mean:

Oh joy.

Something bad also happened here at the house in the way of some pretty bad water damage. It's put a huge damper (no pun intended) on my "getting things done" spirit.Trials and tribulations of homeownership, right? Right?!?!

So right now the laptop only works when hooked up to the TV and my house is a complete mess and blogging on an iPhone sucks.

Yay for 2011. Yeah, I'm bitter. And what.

Thrifty Holiday Storage Solution

2011-01-07T12:32:00.001-05:00

I'm a bit of a cheap-o, so when it came down to storing all my Christmas decor I was not about to pay $20 for the storage containers sold at most stores.

I saw storage solutions like these everywhere and immediately thought I could that!

I had all the supplies already on hand, so I didn't have to shell out any dough. Just the way I like it!

I already had a large Storage Container that I was using to store my Christmas stuff and I had tons of cardboard boxes laying around from all the online shopping I do. (Yeah, I'm guilty of being that girl).

I started by cutting the boxes down to size. I wanted the storage grid to be tall enough and wide enough to fit some bigger ornaments. The length and width of the strips of cardboard depend on the size of your container, but I found that 6" was the perfect height for my big ornaments and created plenty of space to double up some of the ornaments. I cut slits into the lengthwise cardboard strips. You want to create slits that are wide enough to fit over the cardboard, but thin enough so that it sits snugly over the cardboard.

Set up your grid pattern inside your container. It should look something like this.

Now you can add a piece of cardboard over your grid and make another grid to stack on top or you can just start storing stuff over the ornaments.

For the Christmas lights I just took leftover strips of cardboard and wrapped the lights around them. It's as simple as that.

Viola! Christmas storage made cheap!

What thrifty storage solutions have you come up with??

2,400 Miles

2011-01-05T14:55:00.000-05:00

That's how many miles we drove this Holiday season.

It was an 18 hour drive each way from Maryland to Miami.

I'm so grateful that the dog didn't barf in the car.

We vegged out on the couch, stuffed our faces, hung out with family, went out maybe once or twice, slept in late, stayed in our pj's all day, and opened presents.

Somewhere along the way we got drunk a few times (NOT while we were driving though).

For 2 weeks we did nothing. And we're proud of it!

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!

I'm working on various projects and hopefully they'll be done soon, so stay tuned!

Crunch Time

2010-12-29T08:38:00.002-05:00

pro·cras·ti·nate   verb \prə-ˈkras-tə-ˌnāt, prō-\
pro·cras·ti·nat·ed   pro·cras·ti·nat·ing
transitive verb: ~~what Gaby intentionally and habitually does~~ to put off intentionally and habitually
intransitive verb: to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done ~~my new name~~
— pro·cras·ti·na·tion \-ˌkras-tə-ˈnā-shən\ noun
— pro·cras·ti·na·tor \-ˈkras-tə-ˌnā-tər\ noun

The origin of PROCRASTINATE comes the Latin word procrastinatus, from pro- forward + crastinus of tomorrow.

There always come a point in the time-line of our lives when it becomes quite apparent that we suck at schedules. Then you realize the two months you originally gave yourself to finish a million projects has just turned into one month due to the above mentioned procrastination. Now you're going to have to work like a dog to get everything done in time. Absolutely magnificant. Please note the sarcasm in the use of a (.) instead of an (!).

Without further ado, here's the list of crap that needs to get done before January 31st. Why, the 31st you may ask? Because my last semester of nursing school starts on February 1st and them professors aren't taking any prisoners. Boo.

Lots and lots of throw pillows
Finish LR roman shades
Fix office roman shade that I totally screwed up
Paint basement
Sand/paint fireplace surround/mantel
Paint basement hallway
~~Hang mirror in entryway~~
Paint telephone table
Finish upholstering telephone table cushion
Touch up paint powder room
Built in shelves for power room
Touch up paint basement guest bedroom
Remove tape from ceiling in basement guest bedroom
Drywall inside of basement closet
Paint basement closet
Install new laundry tub in laundry closet
Mount drying rack to wall in laundry closet
Paint stripes in guest bedroom wall
Paint/caulk guest bathroom mirror
~~Take down Christmas tree and chuck it~~
~~Create a Christmas ornament storage-box-container-holder-type-thing~~
Paint shelves for office
Hang shelves for office
Reassemble and paint coffee table
Add length to shower curtain
Fix copper pipe in shower that isn't secured in place and causes the shower caddy to slip and shampoo to fall on my head
Paint around light fixture in guest bathroom
Paint master bathroom
Sand/paint master bathroom cabinet
Repair master bathroom toilet
Change electrical crap in master bathroom
Change tub spout and valve in guest bathroom
Change valve in master bathroom shower
Hang glass shelves in master bathroom
Fix over-the-door rack in master bathroom so the door can actually close
~~Buy supplies for basement guest bedroom headboard~~
~~Upholster headboard for basement guest bedroom~~

I'll probably add to this list as I think of more things to do. The works starts next Tuesday. Hopefully.

Christmas Tree

2010-12-18T06:25:00.000-05:00

Our tree is up and presents are wrapped.

This is actually the first year I put up a tree since moving to Maryland 3 years ago. I've accumulated a few ornaments here and there and recently purchased a couple packs, but I think I still need more.

Anyways she looks pretty ~~naked~~ barren.

I've done the color coordinated red and gold tree before, but lately I've been feeling a little more adventurous and loved all the whimsical ornaments I've been finding at vintage stores and Macy's in particular.

I was having a hard time getting a picture of the full tree, so here's a peak at the skirt I picked up at Michael's for $20. It's made out of felt and has bells and puff balls attached to it, but the presents are covering most of it.

I picked up the flower at a vintage shop the year before last (told you I've been accumulating ornaments lol) for about $7. I bought the house ornament to commemorate the purchase of our first house. In gold marker I wrote on the bottom of the ornament "Our 1st home 2010" and included our address for hopefully future generations to see.

Below the house is an ornament of a Bichon Frise I found last year (again, I've been collecting them) in honor of my little man.

See the resemblance??

I found a lion and an owl at Macy's. They were about $2-4 each. Pretty f-ing cute if you ask me :)

I also found a robot!

And a Baltimore cityscape ornament in honor of the area we live in. We don't live in Baltimore, but it's 15 minutes away. When anyone from out of town asks, we pretty much say Baltimore...

And here are a few more vintage ornaments I found.

Hopefully after Christmas when all the leftover Christmas stuff gets heavily discounted I can find some more ornaments. Crossing my fingers.

Ball-o-Yarn Ornament

2010-12-18T05:54:00.000-05:00

The multitude of posts that are ~~clogging up~~ filling my blog roll recently have inspired me to share my own DIY ornament.

This has definitely been done before (hence where my idea came from) so I claim no proprietary rights for this idea and promise not sue anyone for patent infringement if and when you copy me.

Gather your supplies:

Aleene's Original Tacky Glue

Glass Christmas Ornaments (any size)

Yarn (any color, I went for the color I wanted in the cheapest brand I could find)

Note: You don't have to use clear glass ornaments, you can really use just about anything. Racquetballs or ping pong balls would work wonderfully as well.

Step 1: Take off the thingy at the top of the ornament.

Step 2: Dab a little glue at the neck of the ball and hold yarn in place. At this point walk away for 5-10 minutes so that the glue can dry. If you don't walk away you'll be pulling off the yarn every 9 seconds to see if it's dry yet. Trust me. I pulled it off. Every 9 seconds. For like 6 minutes.

Step 4: Add a few lines of glue going down the ball. Not too long though, it tends to dry up fast.

Step 5: Wrap your yarn around the ornament.

Step 6: Keep wrapping.

Step 7: At some point when you hit the fattest part of the ball it starts to get harder to wrap the yarn around using the glue lines I mentioned above. So I tried the method in this picture out and that seemed to work better.

Step 8: Finish wrapping the whole ball. You can leave it how it is or you can go crazy wrapping the yarn in all sorts of directions. I chose to keep it sorta simple. It was late and I was tired, so I got lazy.

Please excuse the pictures. My camera all of the sudden takes crap pictures. Apparently my iPhone does a better job. Me not happy.