dip N dollop

NaBloPoMo - Day 2!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 04:40:00 +0000

So, the prompt for Day 2 is "What is your favorite autumnal flavor?"

I'm having a bit of a challenge thinking of this one. The first flavors that spring to mind when I think of autumn are pumpkin - of course - and apple cinnamon. But guess what? I'm the world's pickiest eater and I'm not really a big fan of either one of those. They smell delicious and every year I love to sniff the pumpkin spice candles, and even stock up on a few, but the taste of pumpkin makes me gag. I also don't like the texture of baked apples. They're too mushy!

However, a farm/pumpkin patch near my home has the world's most amazing make-your-own caramel apple bar. They let you pick your own apple, then they slice it up for you and cover it with tons of warm gooey caramel. You then get to add your own toppings. Rainbow sprinkles, nuts, chocolate chips - dump on as many as you want! From a girl who loooooooooves the toppings at the dessert bar in buffets, it's like a slice of fall heaven.

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I know for some people half the fun of a caramel apple is eating it off of the stick, but I absolutely love that they slice it up for me and I can dig in with a spork. Who doesn't love a good spork?

If you ever find yourself in southeastern Wisconsin around autumn, I highly recommend a trip to The Elegant Farmer. Their caramel apples can't be beat, and they have a deli full of fantastic foods. Around here, they're really well known for their apple pies baked in a brown paper bag. Due to my aversion of baked apples, I've never personally tried one, but my family assures me that they are delicious!

They also have gourmet cheese and caramel popcorn. So good!!!!!

Now that I've got myself thinking about those caramel apples, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to head down the road to the Elegant Farmer this weekend and indulge in one. :)

NaBloPoMo Oct 2013 Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 04:23:00 +0000

I've been out of the blogging world for awhile due to some crappy life circumstances, but I've been wanting to get back in to it. I've been missing writing rambling posts that some people actually read :) I was goofing around on the Internets, and stumbled across some people in the Planner Addicts FB group I belong to who were talking about participating in NaNoWriMo in November - the National Novel Writing month, where from what I understand the goal is to write a novel of approximately 50,000 words in the month of November. I'm definitely not capable of writing a novel, but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered NaBlogPoMo - National Blog Post month! The goal is to write a post a day during the month of October. There are even prompts to help with what to write about every day, although it's not mandatory to follow the prompts. This month's theme is Fall, and since I love autumn, I decided to give NaBloPoMo a try! Plus, it gives me time to finish up some of the projects I have in the works :)

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Today's post is: "What is your favorite thing about autumn?"

I sat and thought and realized that I can't think of just one thing! Autumn is that time of year where I get to break my Uggs back out of the closet. It's the time I can start ordering my Peppermint Hot Chocolate from Starbucks and actually enjoy the warmth of the beverage. I love the smell of autumn, too - especially when people start burning leaves. And the leaves changing colors are so pretty!

And aside from my Uggs, autumn is the time of year with some of the cutest wardrobe choices ever. Hoodies, sweaters, and scarves, oh my!

Plus, football season is back!!!!! I love my Carolina Panthers.

In short, this image I found on Pinterest is a perfect summary of what I love about fall:

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Speaking of Pinterest, do you follow me over there? I'd sure love it if you did!! Find dipNdollop on Pinterest here!

Does anyone else want to share their favorite thing about fall?

Craftaholics Anonymous's 2013 Summer Gift Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 02:48:00 +0000

I love making crafty projects, but after awhile I run out of people to give them to. Or, I just don't have anyone to give something to. And while I love decorating my own home, since many of my rooms are "in a transitional phase" right now, I don't want to spend a lot of money creating something that I'll just have to re-do and/or donate once I finally get around to decorating that room.

Enter Linda, the fabulous mind behind Craftaholics Anonymous. Twice a year, she totally rocks it out and sponsors a handmade gift exchange. I wanted to participate during the one last winter, but I kind of lost track of time and missed the sign-up date. Shame shame on me. So, I've been (im)patiently waiting for the past 7 months for the summer exchange to roll around. As soon as I got the e-mail in my inbox, I bounced on over to Elfster to sign up for this summer's exchange!

I was paired up with Melissa from California, and I immediately got excited when one of the items on her wishlist was a large vinyl wall decal of song lyrics. I've had my Silhouette for about a year now (you can read about the search for it here, here, and here) and while I've used it for small basic tests and to cut out things from the Silhouette store, I'd yet to really create anything of my own. I'm a member of a Silhouette group on Facebook and seeing all of the awesome projects that those ladies and gentlemen create really gave me a kick in the pants to start experimenting with the capabilities of this machine even more. After all, that IS why I bought it, right?

So to start off, I opened up my Silhouette Studio software and kept an open Safari window next to it, so I could reference back to the original vinyl decal Melissa had included on her wishlist. Then, it was just a matter of picking a font and re-creating what I saw!

It didn't occur to me until much later that a screenshot would have been much more effective than taking a picture of my computer monitor - sorry :(

I designed it using one consistent font since that's how the original was and despite my love of unique fonts, I actually used one of the stock Apple fonts on my computer. I sized it to 12" x 36", loaded my vinyl in to my Cameo, and clicked cut.

Not gonna lie, while it was cutting I was freaking out a little bit since I'd only ever done vinyl designs that were about 4" x 6". But hey, computers know what they're doing, right? Most of the time?

But hey, any day you can see the cut lines is a good day, right?

Here's where I'm going to share the most common sense advice ever with you. Do not attempt to weed black vinyl at 11:30 pm when you are tired in a poorly lit room. You will lose letters and apostrophes, then go to bed feeling flustered. Admission: this photo from above is from the second time I cut the design, when I got smart and worked on this project around 10:30 am. You know. When it's light out.

So after my duh moment and using the second piece of vinyl that I was smart enough to buy in the length I needed (hope for success, plan for failure?) and about an hour of weeding, my decal was looking pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

So then I just popped some transfer tape over the top - I chose to put the transfer tape on right away to help prevent the letters from shifting during shipping. I had to layer two pieces of transfer tape since I only had sheets that were 12" x 24", so I hope it worked out okay.

After that, still making use of my awesome Cameo, I decided to play around with the print and cut feature. Using some sticker paper I had, I created a cute little shipping label.

Sorry for the blurring, but I'm pretty sure Melissa wouldn't appreciate me plastering her name and address all over the internet

And then I also used the print and cut feature to make up a little note. You know, hey, hope you like your gift, how to attach vinyl to a wall, if you hate it or there's a problem e-mail me. That kind of thing. Nothing too special, but I thought they were cute and it was feature of the Cameo that I hadn't ever played with before. Turns out I'm completely in love with it and want to make all sorts of stuff using it now.

It also turns out that I desperately need a pedicure. Poor little toes.

Anyway, thanks Linda for hosting the exchange! And Melissa, I hope you like your gift!

If you'd like to see what some of the other "exchangers" made/received, check out the Handmade Gift Exchange Linky party here or go here for info about the exchanges and to sign up for an e-mail reminder for the next gift exchange!

Sarah vs. The Command Strips

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 04:23:00 +0000

Today, I'm going to talk about that one time that I was nearly bested by some of the most simple technology known to man: what is essentially double sided tape. That's right - I nearly lost a battle with the infamous Command Strips. And friends, this would not have been the first battle with the foamy strips of awesomeness that I lost, nor the second, but in fact, the third time that I would have been beaten down by 3M. I couldn't let that happen.

I'm a smart girl folks! I've got a college degree and everything. Yet these evil little strips, which many in the blogging world seem to adore, apparently bring out the stupid in me.

Case Study #1: They remove with no damage! Christmas of 2011, I used Command hooks to hang our Christmas stockings on the wall (yes, the dogs have Christmas stockings!). January 1 rolls around, and I go to gently pull down on the little tab to remove the strip from the wall, and proceed to take a half-dollar coin sized piece of paint and wall texture with me (that I still haven't repainted to this day, I might add.) Fail #1.

Case Study #2: As we saw in my pantry, I hang reusable shopping bags on the back of the pantry door. They are hung using the Command hooks. Not 100% paying attention, when I went to hang the back piece of the hook, I accidentally stuck it to the door upside down. Obviously my fault, I can't blame the strips for that. When I went to pull down on the tab to pull the plastic piece off, the tab ripped off! So now there is a plastic backing for an upside down Command hook perma-stuck to the back of my pantry door. Which will come in handy if I ever decide to hang a wreath on that door... Fail #2.

So, that brings us to the current date, and my current dilemma, which is this:

This is the view under my work desk in my home office. I work from home in a customer service job, so I have the computer plugged in, along with my phone and amplifier, my lamp, and I also had my Silhouette plugged in over there at the time. I like to stretch my legs out all the way under my desk which was causing me to kick the cords and unplug stuff from time to time. While at my local Menard's, I happened to be in front of a display that had a pack of Command strips while thinking about the cord issue and I figured they would be a good solution to my dilemma.

So I picked them up, and my nemesis and I were face-to-face again. My plan was to use the Command strips to stick the power strip to the underside of my desk, thus removing any cord clutter from around my feet. Genius, no? I was pretty proud of myself.

I cut the strips in half since the power strip I use for my work stuff isn't that large or heavy. Really, I just wanted to include this picture because I was really darn proud of myself for getting the scissors to balance like that all on their own while I snapped this photo.

I read the directions super carefully, and cleaned the power strip and the bottom of my desk and waited for them to dry before adhering the Command strips to the power strip, then attached everything to the bottom of my desk. I laid under my desk and held it up there pretty tight for about 15 minutes. When I let go, everything stuck - so I walked away feeling pretty proud of myself. (I did unplug everything from the strip as well, so there was no excess weight pulling it down.) Success, right?!?!

WRONG!!!

When I walked in the next morning, the power strip was back on the ground, where it started. I may have possibly overreacted at this point, since my solution was to cut four more Command strips in half and stick them on to the back of the power strip then secure the whole thing on to the underside of my desk with clamps. I then left the clamps there for about a week.

But...this all happened about 6 weeks ago, and this is what I've had ever since.

Sorry for the horribly blurry iPhone photo

Success tastes so sweet. And now I can stretch my feet out without worrying about hanging up on people or disconnecting my entire computer system, which is always a good thing.

So, that's my saga with the Command strips. Any one have any good tips for me so I can get along better with these foamy sticky strips? Or is there a product that you constantly have to do battle with? Am I all alone in that respect??

I'm Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 20:04:00 +0000

Well, maybe not badder than ever, since at the heart of it all I really am your classic good Midwestern small-town girl, but I am back!

I follow some really amazing blogs. Jen from IHeart Organizing, Abbey from The Cards We Drew, Whitney and Ashley from Shanty 2 Chic, Kate from Centsational Girl, Ruth from Living Well Spending Less - just to name a few! As of right now, I have over 30 blogs in my Feedly feed. (Feedly feed? Is it just me or does that sound redundant?) And every. single. one. of the ladies (and couple of gentlemen) that I follow is above and beyond extraordinary. They inspire me, guide me, give me great ideas, and terrify me.

Yup. They terrify me. I'm a perfectionist. If I'm not great at what I'm doing, amazing, fantabulous, awesomesauce - well then, what's the point in doing it? So, as of the time of my last post, I was feeling inferior. None of my ideas felt creative, and nothing I did compared to the amazing skills these other bloggers had. How could I compete?!

In addition to feeling "bested", I felt overwhelmed. I was seeing all of these amazing ideas posted all over the internet and blogosphere, and I wanted to try them ALL! Ooh, essential oils and making your own face washes and body lotions? I'm down. Hey, look, canning and making your own spaghetti sauce and pickles and taco sauce and jams and jelly and dilly beans? Sign me up! Organizing and decorating and Project Life-ing and re-decorating and building and card making and crafts for kids and volunteering and sewing and crafts for pets and crafts for husbands and digital design? Sounds GREAT! And let's not forget cleaning and making my own cleaners and constantly searching for ways to be more efficient and try new recipes and be an amazing friend and daughter and be the best person ever because everyone has to love me, right??

Whoa. Hold the phone.

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I like instant gratification, so I'd be in the middle of one project, but then I would see something else (be it on Pinterest or another amazing blog) so I would drop what I was in the middle of and scamper off like a little raccoon (they're the ones attracted to shiny objects, right?) to go play with my newest project. I'm pretty sure that I have things for projects that I don't even remember.

I couldn't keep up with my own expectations for myself, and I burned myself out. And then, an amazing thing happened. I was spending some quality time on the couch with my iPad yesterday, and I was going through Jen's blog over at iHeart Organizing. And by going through, I mean I started alllll the way from the very beginning of her blog. And reading her early posts made me remember why I started my blog. For me. So I have somewhere to record all of the projects I work on, so I can remember them later down the road. Do I hope that others read what I write and get something out of it - and even like me? Of course! But I get that my blog isn't for everyone, and I can't make everyone happy, and that's okay. I can work on projects inspired by other bloggers, and that's okay, too. Don't they say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery?!

And then, for an even clearer sign that I was supposed to come back to the blog, I got this comment last night:

"I found this tutorial in google after searching for a cork board without a wooden frame. My original plan was to just paint a chevron pattern on my board, but I love this idea so much more! "

Oh my Gosh - I got Googled!!! And the comment was left just as I was wondering if I should come back to the blog. I'd say that's some pretty awesome blog karma, wouldn't you??

So my bloggy commitments going forward:

Limit my Pinterest exposure - I think I may even remove the app from my phone. GASP!
Have fun, and remember I don't have to be the best or have 30,000 page views a day - this is something I do because I enjoy it, not something to stress over
FINISH PROJECTS! No more starting a new project until the previous one is completed.
Share the love <3
Take breaks if I need them - enjoy the sunshine!

Anyone else ever struggle with meeting their own expectations for themselves? Do you having any coping/calming mechanisms you'd like to share?

Until next time!

In the Pantry

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Over Memorial Day weekend, Friday - Sunday was dedicated to deep cleaning my house. Weird way to spend a weekend for some, but to me it was fabulous. Some of the tasks completed included deep cleaning the carpets, wiping out the fridge and freezer (for the first time in a very long time), finally putting away the stacks of stuff that seem to pile up out of nowhere, and overall just tackling all those little cleaning projects that I always seem to put off "until another day". The house smells so clean and fresh now, it's wonderful.

One of the projects that I undertook over the weekend was organizing the pantry. I feel like I do this every two months or so, but it only lasts for two to three weeks before it slowly descends back in to chaos. This tells me that I just haven't yet found a good method of organizing everything that works. So every time I re-do the pantry, I tweak things a little bit and I'll keep tweaking things until I find a method that works for me. I didn't take any before pictures, but I'm pretty proud of the after.

I hate those wire shelves that the builder installed in our pantry. I have plans to pull those shelves out and replace them with MDF shelves instead. It's actually pretty high on my project list - I really hate those shelves. I find them to be the most useless things ever!

I have an entire shelf dedicated to boxed dinners.

And a half of a shelf dedicated to boxed baking mixes.

And the bottom shelf is dedicated to snacks. I swear I don't normally have that many bags of chips - some family is coming over for Memorial Day so, like, three bags of chips are for that. And I've been addicted to Rold Gold pretzels lately. The big plastic container stores Squirt and Duchess's food. Squirt has a sensitive stomach, and Duchess has been told she needs to lose weight, so I buy 15# bags of limited ingredient dog food for sensitive stomachs and reduced calorie dog foods and mix them together. Then I store them in this container. I tried feeding each dog the food meant for her, but that was just a disaster.

Any extra bottles and cans get stored on the floor of the pantry. The 2-liter bottles aren't common - but I figured they'd be easier for Memorial Day. I actually don't drink soda that often. Juice tends to be the most common thing down here...but I've been on a caffeine kick lately. It's bad.

I picked up this little blue box at Hobby Lobby and I use it to store all of our drink mixes. Mio, Crystal Light, Kool-Aid - even the dry milk powder I use for baking all fit in there really well. It fits perfectly on the shelf up by the breakfast items.

This divided box was another Hobby Lobby find, and it works great to corral all of our little snack items. It shares space on the shelf with our baking mixes. Has anyone ever tried those Hello Panda cookies? They sell them in the Dollar Spot at Target, and I'm in love with them. I used to eat cookies called Koala Yummies when I was a kid, and the Hello Pandas remind me of the Koala Yummies. So good.

I use a Command Hook on the back of the pantry door to hang all of our reusable shopping bags. Our local grocery store gives you a $0.05 per bag credit off of your grocery bill, which is pretty cool. Now I just need to remember to grab them when I'm going to the grocery store...

Part of the reason that I hate the wire shelves is that they don't support the weight of canned goods very well without totally bowing the shelf. As a result, I moved the canned goods to this cabinet to the right of our stove. The canned goods are in isolation.

Bakery goods are kept on the counter, because the wire shelving presses in to the bottoms of the loaves of bread and deforms them, and for some reason I don't like when my bread has funny lines in the bottom of it. I've been toying with the idea of getting a cute bread box to put over here. Two for one: hides the bread and I can decorate it and make it a cute decor piece! Maybe I'll have to start haunting the local Goodwill and keep an eye out...

One thing that really bothers me about the pantry is the amount of pre-mixed meals. I know they're horribly bad for me, and they're filled with preservatives. And I've read that I can also make many of the same mixes for cheaper, and that the homemade version tastes significantly better. My goal is to go through these mixes, and either make and eat them or donate them to our local food pantry, and start making some of my own mixes.

I love Hamburger Helper (the Italian Cheesy Shells are my fav) so that's going to be sad to give up, but it'll be worth it to eat healthier. I know there's all sorts of websites filled with recipes for mixes and breads and the like...does anyone have any recipes that are personal favorites that they would be willing to share??

The Roof! The Roof!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 May 2013 04:12:00 +0000

...wasn't on fire, thank goodness.

Last week, we had some severe thunderstorms power their way through my little corner of Wisconsin. The town just to our west (like, less than five miles to our West) had wind gusts that measured 68 miles per hour! The grill blew around the patio like crazy and the house next door, which earlier that day had just installed a new wooden swing set for their kids, had to watch that swing set blow over on to its side. I went outside after the winds subsided to look for damage and fortunately I didn't see anything.

And then, about a week later, when I was coming in from getting the mail, I just happened to look up. And I saw this:

Granted, I've been a home owner for less than two years, but even I'm intelligent enough to realize that it surely wasn't supposed to look like that. And of course, it was raining that day. And the next day. And the day after that. Anyone that knows me will gladly inform you that I'm not the most graceful of individuals. At any given moment, I probably have at least a half a dozen bruises and/or scratches on me - majority of which I have no clue how they got there. The last thing my family needs is me climbing up on a ladder on to a wet roof. But - the last thing my roof needed was to have a chunk of it blown backwards.

Sometimes, telephoto lenses just make things look that much worse! I didn't know what that part of my roof was, so I sent picture messages to Stepdad to figure out what I was supposed to do. Did I need to call a roofer? Did I need to curl up under my desk in the fetal position and cry? Should I just sit in the driveway and look at my roof and laugh, since it took me a week to notice the damage in the first place?

And then the skies parted and angels sang and I got the world's greatest response.

What what? Stepdad can fix it! Woohoo!! The next day, it rained in the morning but Stepdad was awesome enough to come out after he was done with work (when it was no longer raining) and he climbed up on to the wet, second-floor roof and hammered the roof vent back in to place and nailed it in. As he was on his way down, the skies opened back up and the rain came back down. Talk about perfect timing.

So now, the roof is fixed again. I need to keep an eye on our attic, which luckily is useless - it can't be used for storage or anything. I need to crawl up there and see if any water got in, and if so, make sure I do everything I can so no mold gets in.

So that's what I've been up to lately. I haven't been working on any projects lately because of my whole house deep cleaning spree. Most people spend their Memorial Day weekends on fun vacations and stuff - not me!! I clean. And man, does it feel good.

And for your daily dose of awwww, here's a great shot I got of my older dog Squirt the other day. I'm in love with this picture.

Decorating the Bedroom: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 16 May 2013 03:18:00 +0000

After writing this post about trying to pick a paint color for my bedroom, I headed over to my local Sherwin Williams store to grab some paint chips to hang on my bedroom wall to try to pick a paint color. Husband loves the paint color "Anonymous", and I'm a big fan of "Dovetail" and "Keystone Gray". I also stopped by my local Menard's, and picked out the Dutch Boy colors "Dried Plain" and "Lake Cottage". Husband really likes "Lake Cottage", too.

I really like all of these colors, and was having problems narrowing them down, so I figured maybe I was going about this the wrong way. Maybe I needed to find some new bedding that I loved, and pink the paint color to match the bedding! Stroke of genius, right? So I headed to Target. I recently re-discovered Target as an amazing store for home decor, after going years with only buying from Kohl's, Crate & Barrel, and Bed, Bath & Beyond for any home decor I needed. I took Husband to Target with me, figuring that it was his bedroom, too, so his input was important.

This was probably a combination of the worst two ideas I've had in quite some time.

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I'm in love with this comforter set, and thought it would look fabulous with the darker Anonymous-colored walls that Husband loved...but Husband vetoed this comforter set right away. No hesitation. I was devastated.

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Husband is a big fan of this comforter. It's a darker teal than it looks like in this photo. I'm not 100% sold on it...to me, the pinched pleats just look wrinkly.

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This is a quilt option that we both liked. I love the gingham look and how easy it would be to dress up with accessories, but with the wall colors we're considering I worry that it would be too much gray in our bedroom.

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We both agree on this one, too, but again with the overwhelming gray. The nice thing about this one that you can't really see in this photo is that it has a bit of a metallic shimmer to it that I think is really pretty.

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Husband and I both like this set...it comes in a quilt option and a comforter set. The comforter felt scratchy, but the quilt was nice and soft. The quilt would be a nice option for summer, too. We have a memory foam mattress and our bed gets really warm, so I like the idea of a quilt.

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I'm loving the deep teal of this duvet cover, as well. I like having duvet covers, because they're so easy to pop in the washer when they get dirty. With two dogs in the house, it's a requirement to have a bedding set that we can wash in our washing machine - I don't like to have laundry that I have to take to the laundromat in order to get it clean.

So, after my bright idea, now I have 5 paint colors that I really like AND 6 different bedding sets. I'm thinking I should probably put the bedroom redecorating project on the back burner and tackle some pending projects that I have like refinishing a dining set that I got from ReStore and building a console table for the TV in our master bedroom. Maybe some time simmering will tell me what I want to do...

Has anyone else ever experienced design block? Or an overwhelming number of ideas and problems narrowing them down??

Linked up here...

Project Life Organization

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:23:00 +0000

Happy May everyone! Spring has finally decided to make an appearance here in beautiful old Wisconsin. It's sunny, about 80*, slightly breezy...couldn't ask for more!

After only a couple of weeks, I fell off of the Project Life bandwagon. Not because I didn't love it, life just got away from me and I forgot to take pictures as I was going along. But I figure the first of the month is a great time to wipe the slate clean and start fresh, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'll forget my failure in documenting April (April wasn't that great anyway - the weather totally sucked!) and move forward. I found some photo a day challenges via Instagram so that I always have some ideas of things to photograph on days that I'm feeling uninspired or stuck, and I realized that some of the projects I work on would also be good things to include in my album.

Since I'm recommitting myself to Project Life, I thought I'd take some time today to share with you all how I organize my materials for it. I love how much less space this method takes up than normal scrapbooking does. Seriously. Are you ready to be astounded at how little space I need to store my scrapping materials? Check it out:

Are you impressed, amazed, and/or astounded? I sure was. I saw this metal drawer cabinet at Hobby Lobby weeks before I started Project Life, and I immediately knew I had to have it. I had no clue what I was going to use this for, but it was so cute, and it was grey so I knew it would fit in to the color scheme of my office + craft room, and it was 50% off...so I bought it. When I saw the sizes of the Project Life inserts, I whipped out my measuring tape and realized that all of the 3" x 4" inserts would fit perfectly. So, after i took my cue from A Vegas Girl at Heart and cut up some 6" x 6" paper pads (Uncharted Waters by Glitz Design) to fit the 3" x 4" inserts, so that I could use these as filler cards. With my awesome metal drawer unit, I have drawers where I can organize my filler cards by color, like so:

And like so:

My filler cards are separated by neutrals, pink + red, yellow + orange, blue + green, and multi, and I have one drawer for grid journaling cards and one drawer for lined journaling cards. Then comes the fun stuff. In the column of drawers to the far right, I have a drawer of washi tape that stays with all of my Project Life gear:

And two drawers of embellishments:

And right now there's actually - gasp! - one empty drawer that I have reserved for more embellishments :-)

Any embellishments I have that don't fit in the drawers (or that I haven't cut down to fit) slide nicely under the drawer unit, like so:

Since the 4" x 6" inserts don't fit in the drawers, I have a little plastic bin that I got from the Dollar Tree that fits perfectly on my desk shelf right next to the drawers where I can fit my 4" 6" cutouts that I use to make up week number card, and also holds larger scraps that I kept from trimming down the original 6" x 6" paper pads. It's also home to some Recollections cards that I got from Michael's, that I'm debating between keeping or using as part of a giveaway for when I grow the blog a little more.

And that my friends is it! Everything I need to complete a scrapbook layout, all stored on a 10" shelf that's 2' long. Amazing, no?

Linking up...

@ Remodelaholic

Help Me Decorate My Bedroom! Please!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 03:08:00 +0000

When Husband and I bought our house, I was overwhelmed by the blandness of it. Our house was a new construction build. It had been used as a model home, but it was still builder beige everywhere you looked. All of the walls were the same color, and the cabinets in the kitchen were the same as the cabinets in the bathrooms. The linoleum in the kitchen also matches the linoleum in the bathrooms. When we were preparing to move in, I made a trip to Home Depot and stocked up on about a dozen gallons of paint, and three pretty light fixtures for our two full bathrooms and one half bathroom to upgrade from the builder basics. Now that we've been settled in to our home for awhile, I'm finding myself dissatisfied with the color choices I made in that desperate weekend of painting.

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Our bedroom is currently painted Whitened Sage, by Behr. It's an incredibly soft green. So soft, that when my husband came home that night after I busted my bum after painting all day, his response was, "Didn't you paint this room?" I'm pretty sure I growled at him. I wanted a really nice neutral for this room, because I'm one of those people that change out my bedding with the seasons. For fall and winter, I have the Sakura bedding from Crate and Barrel on our bed:

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And in the spring and summer, we have Calvin Klein's Maldives Collection Bedding on our bed:

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I'm not even going to show you pictures of our bedroom now, because I'm that ashamed of it. I will, however, show you photos of how I want it to be :-)

Husband and I are electronics addicts, so nightstands are a must for both of us. I want to build these, lovelies, courtesy of the uber-talented Ana White.

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I love how this poster painted the bottom nice and bright but stained the top. Totally stealing that idea. I'll find some cute knobs for this project from Hobby Lobby. I have to drive about 45 minutes to get to the nearest Hobby Lobby, but it's worth every mile!

I also want to build the Farmhouse King Bed as featured on Ana White's blog.

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For the furniture, I'm thinking that I want to just paint it a nice antique white color and distress it a bit, and stain the distressed edges the same color I want to stain the tops of the nightstands. I'm also wanting to get a seating area in here, with two little arm chairs and a small round table. I think the room is large enough to support it; I'll put it where I now have a huge, dark, over-sized dresser that I can't wait to sell on Craigslist and wait to wave bye-bye to.

Here's where I NEED your help!!!

I have NO CLUE what color to paint the walls of my bedroom!! I still want something neutral that will go well with both of the bedding choices that we use in the bedroom. These are the color choices that Husband and I have been considering. (I know that it totally depends on how they look in the room and we need to try out samples, but I'd appreciate opinions of what colors y'all would lean towards!)

Tapestry Beige by Benjamin Moore

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Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore

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Copley Grey by Benjamin Moore

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Creekside Green by Benjamin Moore

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Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams (I know it's everywhere, but I love how chameleon-like this color is!)

Right now, my favorite three are Perfect Greige, Creekside Green, and Tapestry Beige - in that order.

What do you think??

Living Room Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:50:00 +0000

My living room right now is very beige. I mean very. Beige carpet, beige walls, beige sofa. The dark wood furniture and window treatments just add to the overall brown scheme. I try to incorporate color through throw pillows and blankets, but that's just a tiny spot of color in all of the beige. Take a look:

The view of the living room from the dining room.

The view of my living room from the front door - and our older dog, Squirt

And the view from the den and coming down the stairs - and more of Squirt.

The gate between the living room and the dining room is for the dogs for when Husband and/or I have to leave them home alone. We close the gate and they have free reign of the kitchen and dining room. It makes it easier to clean up any puppy messes that may occur.

The decor in this room is fairly bland, as well. I hate the entertainment center. It's a pain in the butt to keep clean, and the shelf for the DVD player is all the way at the bottom, which messes with the function of the remote.

Please excuse the mess; I was too lazy to pick up, lol

I'm also less than enamored with this table. I picked it because it fit so well in the opening of the sofa (if you can't tell, it's a sectional with a chaise on the left and a love seat section on the right). What I didn't plan on was Husband using this as his dinner table every night, so what inevitably ends up happening is crumbs get stuck in the grooves and we have to vacuum them out. It's nasty!

We've got two of these leaning bookshelves - one on each side of the entertainment center. Around Christmas, we move both bookshelves to the right of the entertainment center, then we put the tree to the left of the TV by the window. These bookshelves encourage me to fill them with stuff, but I don't have a lot of cute stuff in them, and I don't think everyone that comes to visit needs to see every single TV show that Husband and I own - which is kind of a lot. And I want to get Criminal Minds, too - love that show!

Anyway, I'm less than in love with the torchiere lamps, as well. They're so bland!!

I like our bamboo window treatments, but I'd like to put some nice valances or cornice boards or something above the windows for more decoration and a classier look. The picture frames are family photos and pictures from our engagement photo shoot, so they haven't been updated since April 2010. I feel like this wall could be used for cuter decorations. The one thing I do like is at Christmas I use Command hooks and stick them up there, and our 4 stockings (mine, Husband's, and one for each dog) fit perfectly in the "empty" spaces.

We also have this random little crooked wall in between our foyer and Husband's Game Room (AKA the den) and I feel like it's screaming for a cute little secretary desk.

As random as it seems, this clock is the thing I love about my living room. I got it from a home decor store here in southeastern Wisconsin called Kirkland's. I love the blue color, and the distressed look. It hangs above our TV, but I need to bring it down a little from the ceiling. It's a little too high right now.

We also have a large sectional that is that faux suede material. I stained part of the couch with the dye from some of my super dark jeans - I find that dark Old Navy jeans have dye that rub off on everything, no matter how frequently they are washed! I think the sectional is too big for the space, and it closes the living room off.

I've been daydreaming lately about what I want my living room to look like, and I thought I'd share some of what I've come up with.

I want to replace the sectional with a sofa, then get two chairs and put them to the right of the sofa, over by the wall of windows. I don't want to push the chairs right up against the wall, but rather have them "float" out a foot or two from the wall. This combination is one of the options I've been thinking about. It's the Ektorp sofa from Ikea in Abyn blue, and two Ektorp armchairs in Svvenby grey.

Another combination I've been thinking about is the Ektorp sofa in Svenby grey and two of the Ektorp Jennylund chairs in Sagmyra grey/check. I'm ridiculously in love with these chairs. They make me happy. :)

I want to build the Becca trunk from Shanty2Chic and use it as a coffee table, and use it to store blankets to keep them off of the couch. On the wall between the windows, I want to put up two of these glass bottle jar wall vases, also from Shanty2Chic. (What can I say, I love those ladies' style!) Between the chairs, I want to build that cute little end table, which is from the fabulous Ana White. I also want to refinish a dresser or a buffet, and replace our entertainment center with that.

My goal now is to start figuring out what colors I want, other than the grey and blue - accent colors, and the color for the paint and stain for the building projects. I also need to keep an eye out for some alternative lighting solutions. There is no built-in light in this room other than what we get from the windows, so I need to have lamps...I just want ones that are much bigger.

I'd love to paint the walls later down the road, but I want to hire a professional or something for that, because due to the open concept layout of our house this color covers the entire bottom floor (except the den and the half bath) then continues up the stairs and throughout the upstairs hallway. That's a lot of paint!

We're also planning on ripping out the carpet and installing hardwood floors but that project is a couple of years down the road.

Even without changing the painting and flooring, redecorating the entire room is still a pretty big undertaking. It's going to take me some time, but I'm hoping it will look completely different - and elegant and stylish!

Thoughts, ideas, comments, suggestions? I'd love to hear them!!

Beauty Bag: Squeaky Clean Hair

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:51:00 +0000

I was "blessed" with thick curly hair. The grass truly is greener, because I wish daily that my hair was about 50% thinner than it is, and I would gladly sell my soul for straight hair. Heck, I'd probably sell my soul for slightly wavy hair. But alas, such is not my lot in life.

In order to make my hair look like I want it to, I abuse the crap out of it. I admit it, I'm a hair torturer. I color it frequently, and bleach it when I want highlights. I blow dry my hair, then run a flat iron that is never set below 360* and is in fact generally closer to the maximum of 410* over it. If I'm not careful, I end up with dry, brittle hair that breaks if you look at it funny. And let's not even talk about the split ends.

Because of this, I tend to make sure that I purchase quality products to use on my hair. I've tried a lot of "drugstore" brands, and many of them just don't hydrate and condition my hair like my favorites do.

After much experimentation, I fell in love with the Shampoo and Conditioner offered by Keratin.

I'm so in love with this stuff that I buy it in bulk, lol. I get the big bottles, and then use the big bottles to refill the little bottles that I keep in my shower.

I love that the shampoo is sulfate free. I like to dye my hair with brownish-reds (auburn, if you will) a lot, and not having sulfates in my shampoo makes the reds last that much longer in my hair. There's nothing worse then falling in love with - and paying good money for - a hair color that is completely faded out within a couple of weeks. The shampoo doesn't produce a lot of suds, which makes a lot of people nervous, but my hair still gets nice and clean. When I'm shampooing, I like to amp up the cleaning power, so I'll mix my shampoo with baking soda. My roots get so clean this way, and I never feel like I have tons of product weighing my hair down.

The Keratin Smoothing Conditioner is super hydrating, without leaving a weird film on my hair like some conditioners do. It hydrates well, and rinses out really cleanly. I like to wash my hair first, then smooth on my conditioner and clip it up using a claw clip. Then I let it soak in and rinse it out at the very end of my shower. I don't apply my conditioner to my scalp, just to the ends of my hair and my bangs.

In the winter or just after coloring my hair, when it needs some extra conditioning, I use Aveda's Restructuring Conditioner in place of the Keratin Smoothing Conditioner. I can't use this conditioner regularly, because it's so rich that my hair will get greasy. So I use it once every other week in the winter, and for a week after getting my hair dyed. I love how this stuff smells. I don't know exactly how to describe the scent, but it smells really natural, fresh, and clean.

So those are my go-to hair cleansing products. I've been considering trying the "no -poo" recipes that I see all over Pinterest, but I'm a little nervous because of all of the heat styling that I put my hair through. Plus, I just bought these liters of shampoo and conditioner, and Keratin products aren't inexpensive, so I think I'll hold off on that experiment for now.

From Oversized T-Shirt to Cute Vest!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:28:00 +0000

One of my favorite blogs to follow is WobiSobi's. This girl can do some amazing things with Hanes T-shirts and scissors. I'm amazingly inspired by her fearlessness when it comes to re-fashioning and restyling.

I'm a girl on a budget, but I like to have cute clothes. Since I'm not a small girl, I don't necessarily feel that comfortable in a lot of clothing designed for girls, since the clothing tends to be more fitted which makes the fact that most of her T-shirt refashions are done using men's Hanes T-shirts. And those T-shirts are cheap, so if I mess something up I just try again. No harm, no foul. Because I live in Wisconsin, which has some pretty crazy weather, I love dressing in layers so I can adapt my outfit as the temperature changes throughout the day.

That being said, I thought WobiSobi's cute 5 Minute Draped Vest #2 would be the perfect candidate for my first T-shirt refashion attempt. I apologize in advance for the low-quality iPhone photos...it was the only camera I had available at the time I got scissor happy.

I started with a plain grey Hanes T-shirt. I ordered a pack of 4 from Amazon for like $16, so my cute vest started life looking like this.

I ordered XXL T-shirts because, again, I'm not a small girl, and I wanted to have a lot of "drapiness" to my vest. So I laid it out flat on the floor.

Then I made 5 easy cuts. I cut the sleeves off as close to the seams as I could, then cut the collar deeper. I cut off the bottom hem, the cut down the sides of the shirt. Duchess had to inspect my work after I was done cutting.

And that easily, I had a cute new drapy vest!

And the back is nice and simple.

I had one helluva time getting a pic of my back, lol

I think this would look really cute with some skinny jeans and my black boots. I think I'll try that outfit out this weekend!

Mason Jar Piggy Banks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:42:00 +0000

I've been craving some new electronics lately. I want an iPad mini pretty badly, and I also want to go back to my Mac computers. I use a Windows laptop right now, and I miss my MacBook. I use an iMac every day for work, and it's so nice to use that I think I want one for myself.

So pretty!

I'm also trying to save for a down payment to get a new car. I hit a deer with mine early on Christmas morning, and I cracked up the bumper and it's been making some pretty ominous noises ever since. Plus, it's getting older, and it's a coupe with not a lot of interior space, so I'd like to upgrade to something with 4 doors that's a little roomier. Trying to bring home 8' boards for projects in a Pontiac G5 is no easy task! I'd really love to get something like this:

Hyundai Tucson

Or maybe one of these...

Subaru Legacy

So since I'm saving for two different things, I wanted to create some cute "piggy banks" to help inspire me and encourage me to save. I picked up a couple of smooth sided Bell jars from Michael's, and cut some cute 12"x12" scrapbook paper to about 5" tall.

Then I grabbed my hot glue gun and ran a line down the side of the paper, and wrapped it around the jar.

I ran a line of washi tape down the gap in between the paper, because the 12" wide scrapbook paper was just a teensy bit too small to wrap around the entire jar. For some more decoration, I also added some washi tape on the top and bottom edge of the patterned paper.

For more fun, I wrapped some thin ribbon around the jar several times, then tied the ribbon in a knot in the front of the jars.

I got some cute Martha Stewart tags on clearance from Staples a few months ago, and I thought they'd make a cute addition to my jars.

So I dabbed the edges of the tags on an ink pad, then wrote on the tag what each savings jar is for.

So in about 15 minutes, I ended up with two cute jars to fill up! Now I just need to find some overtime hours to work so I can start feeding my adorable jars!

Project Life Planning Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

I've been scrapping using the Project Life method for about almost two months now, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's so much less work, and it's been much less expensive. The only problem I've been having is that between work, school, taking care of my home, husband, and dogs, blogging and crafting, and visiting family, I don't necessarily have enough time every week to sit down and finish my layout for the week. And if I get two or more weeks behind I tend to forget what happened that week, which kind of goes against the whole point of scrapping to remember what's happening.

Because I only use two different layout pages for my Project Life album right now, I decided that an easy way to keep track of what was going on was to make pretty planner pages that I could keep in my planner. That way, when I got an hour or two free, I could sit down and pull out the planning pages, and scrap away.

To download my planning page for Project Life Design A pages, click here.

To download my planning page for Project Life Design D, click here.

I printed these double-sided, so when I turn each page I'm able to view an entire spread and plan accordingly. I put them in a special "Project Life" section of my trusty planner, and I write down things I want to remember or make sure to scrap about in the "Photos/Notes" section. Then in the planning section, I write down brief descriptions of the photos that I want to make sure to include.

Right now, I'm about 3 or 4 weeks behind, but I'm not stressing out because I have notes of everything that I want to include. I'm hoping to be able to sit down on Sunday and knock a few weeks out so I'm more caught up. As soon as I get those weeks done, I'll just take the planning pages out of my planner so I'm not hauling around more paper than necessary and I'll have a scrapbook that documents what was happening!

I really do enjoy Project Life, and as soon as I have a few more layouts completed I'll make sure to share them with you!

Beauty Bag: Mary Kay Timewise Matte-Wear Liquid Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 03:54:00 +0000

Let's talk about good foundations, shall we? After all, you can't build anything without a good foundation - especially not a beautiful face!!! (I feel like I sounded like a cheesy infomercial host right there).

MAC Studio Fix

When it comes to foundation, I used to prefer a powder foundation, like MAC's Studio Fix. I appreciated that it only took about 15 seconds to apply, and I felt like it helped absorb some of the oils from my face. However, it never had the "full" coverage that I wanted, and some of the discoloration and flaws on my skin were still pretty visible through the MAC.

Laura Gellar Balance-n-Brighten Baked Color Correcting Foundation - say that 5 times fast

I would watch QVC at night before going to bed - and that's a whole 'nother story - and saw the Laura Gellar Baked collection. I figured anything called "Balance and Brighten Color Correcting Foundation" would be the cure for all my troubles. Balance? Check. Brighten? Check. Color Correcting? Check! The baked foundation was lovely, and I loved the way it felt going on my face. The only problem was, even after using a primer (I got a trial of LG's Spackle to test) the foundation was gone within two hours. Vanished. Like a good David Copperfield trick. I went as far as buying a second compact and brush that I carried everywhere with me, and would sneak off on breaks at work to re-apply to keep my face looking smooth.

Then I went to that fated Mary Kay Faces night, where I learned that I can not only make myself pretty, but that pretty foundation CAN actually last for more than two hours. Enter Timewise Matte-Wear Liquid Foundation. In Ivory 5, I might add.

I had always been nervous of liquid foundations for many reasons. I didn't want a "dewy glow" since my face generated enough oil to "glow" like I'd just run a marathon, and I didn't want it settling in to my pores and giving me a funny blotchy look halfway through the day. I was also nervous of the dreaded orange line - you know, the girl that's wearing the totally wrong foundation color and her jaw and neck are two totally different colors as a result? Yeah, not my cup of tea.

The matte-wear formula of this foundation prevented that dewy glow I had been worried about, and instead just gave me a smooth canvas of color. I also made the decision to apply my foundation daily with a brush instead of my fingers or a sponge. It allows me to not glob more product than I need on my face, and I find I can blend better AND get better coverage when I use my foundation brush. I know application methods are a personal choice, and some people think I'm crazy for using the brush instead of a sponge, but after experimenting I have just found that the brush is the best method for me.

To apply my foundation, I just squeeze a bit on to the back of my hand, dab my brush in to the foundation, then apply to my face using a combination of long brush strokes and a dabbing motion, almost like I'm painting with a stencil. My lovely friend Clarissa came over the other day to do a makeover for a contest Mary Kay is running right now, so here's the before:

Eek! Naked face

Absolutely, positively terrifying, is it not? Granted, the whole point of the "before" picture is to make you look pretty beat up, but I'm just downright scary without my face on. Please understand that it is a big deal for me to post a picture of myself looking this awful on the Internet, and don't judge me too harshly.

The makeup we did on makeover day was a little darker and more dramatic than what I normally wear, so for comparison here's a picture that I took of myself the other day after putting on my face (with it's lovely foundation):

Not quite as terrifying, no? I applied my makeup around 1:00 pm that day (the benefits of working from home - I don't need to put on makeup to go to work every morning!) and when I went to wash my face around 11:00 pm that night, my face still looked like this. I love having a makeup that will last!

I will admit, to set my foundation and even up the color, I do put a layer of the previously mentioned Balance-n-Brighten on top of the foundation most days. Putting a powder over the top just makes my face feel that much more "finished"

So, that's how I build a good foundation - MK primer & Timewise Foundation, with a swipe of Laura Gellar

Decorative Push Pins

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 03:00:00 +0000

Once I made my pretty new decorative cork board, I knew I couldn't use boring metal pushpins (or worse, those ugly colored plastic ones) on the pretty damask print. When I was at Hobby Lobby, I found these adorable glittery buttons in both silver and green. They were cheap, and came in two sizes so I had a little bit of variety to work with.

So I grabbed my cute buttons, some thumb tacks I bought from Target, and some quick hold e6000. I love E6000 glue, but the quick hold is even better in my mind because it adheres more quickly than normal E6000. I spread out some wax paper on my kitchen table - because if there is even the slightest chance I can make a mess, I'll find a way to do it - and went to town.

I applied a dab of the E6000 to each thumb tack, then waited a few seconds for the glue to get a little tacky. Then I mushed the thumb tack on to the back of my buttons, and in no time at all I had a sea of button thumb tacks.

With some of my buttons, I glued the smaller sized button on to the larger size in the alternating color, but apparently I didn't take any photos of that step.

I let them dry for 24 hours, and that was it! Pretty thumb tacks to match my pretty cork board.

I'm not sure what that line is right to the right of the thumb tack, but don't you love the polka dots? That is actually my desk. Post on that to come!

Budget Worksheet Printable

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:00:00 +0000

I've been on a roll lately creating pages for my planner. I see so many awesome ones online, but sometimes it's just fun to create something that's all my own.

This printable is a guide for a monthly budget. It has one column for your anticipates monthly budget, and the other columns are for each month so you can keep track of how much in each category you are actually spending.

If you're interested in downloading this free printable, click here.

Any feedback or comment love is always appreciated!

Beauty Bag: Tarte Concealer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:05:00 +0000

Remember those days when you didn't have to worry about dark circles under your eyes, or masking the dark spots that have appeared on your face over time (possibly from having one of the worst teen skin care habits ever: picking at pimples)? I don't know about you, but for me those days have passed, and the only days I don't need to conceal some smudge or blemish on my face is the days I don't bother to put on makeup at all. I'm sad to say, with a work from home job, those days are becoming much more frequent. Which is sad for all of you who think I'm crazy to say that, because I love putting on makeup and playing with the pretty pots and brushes and seeing the (scary) before and the (decent) after.

For my concealer, I rely on Tarte's Smooth Operator Amazonian clay concealer. It's the perfect amount of coverage, and stays on alllllllllll day long - and all night long, for that matter.

It comes in a tube like a lipstick, and swivels up just like one, too. I use my fingers to apply it so I can get the exact amount that I want, and also so that I can warm it up a little before I apply it to the spot that needs to be concealed. I find it blends a lot better when it's a little warm, because it's much more malleable.

I get my Tarte products from Ulta. Here's the link to my concealer: Smooth Operator Amazonian Clay Waterproof Concealer. I know Sephora sells Tarte as well, and I think some random places like QVC do too. I just like Ulta because it's closest to me - hooray for convenience. And coupons in the mail. :)

On a side note, I'm totally ready for summer to come. Not because I like the warm weather - I don't - but because I need it to stay light out longer! My learning how to take pretty pictures is suffering due to lack of natural light!

Speaking of pretty pictures...when I was tinkering to get the shots of my concealer tube just right, one of my dogs was patiently waiting for me to come fold the laundry she was pinning down, and I just happened to catch her in an adorable moment so I had to share:

This is Duchess, our 2 year old Chihuahua mix

Tell me those big brown eyes don't melt your heart a little!! And notice, she has flawless fur, so no need for the Tarte concealer that she tried to steal from me.

And on those random notes - that's my concealer! And my dog. :)

Decorative Cork Board

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 07:30:00 +0000

Now that I'm working from home, a lot of the projects I'm working on revolve around organization for the office so that I can get settled in to my office. I love having a cork board that I can pin things to that I either need to remember long-term so I have it to refer to quickly, or for things that recently changed so that I have it posted in front of me as a constant flag of something that changed.

But with all of the work I've been putting in to my office, the last thing I wanted hanging on my wall was an ugly, plain, boring old brown cork board. I was at Hobby Lobby and saw this grey and white damask print fabric and fell in love. However, it was a little too busy for me to use in a large area. Then it hit me. Wouldn't it be cool if I could pin stuff to this awesome looking damask fabric. Then the skies opened and rays of sun shone down on me and I heard angels singing. Okay, it wasn't that dramatic, but I did get really excited by the idea.

I bought a plain cork board that fit my wall space, then taped it off and painted the frame the same lime green that I've been using for an accent color over the entire room. I'm sure you could get away with painting the frame without taping it off, but I'm messy and didn't want to chance any excess paint showing through my fabric so I took the extra step.

I did two coats of paint on the frame of the cork board. To be honest, it probably could have used a third coat. That frame really soaked up paint! But I lost patience, and the two coats gave it a weathered look, so I stuck with it. Side note - does anyone else love these foam brushes as much as I do? They're great for small projects, and I personally hate cleaning brushes so I stock up with Michael's has them like 14/$1 or 20/$1 so I can just toss them when I'm done with them. No cleaning required!

After the paint was dried, I ironed my fabric and made sure to lay it out perfectly flat. You want to make sure there are no wrinkles! I laid the cork board on top of the fabric with the edges of the cork board hanging off of the edges of the fabric. Then I used my rotary cutter to cut along the sides of the cork board, so I ended up with a piece of fabric that was just slightly larger than the cork board's surface (not including the frame).

Once I had my fabric cut out, I brought everything up out of my basement, where it was cold and clearly has pretty poor lighting, and laid it out on the kitchen table. I laid the fabric right side up on top of the cork, and grabbed a putty knife to slide the fabric into the space in between the cork and the frame. I found a flexible metal putty knife to work perfectly for this step- it was slim enough to slide in the gap between cork and frame and flexible enough to catch the fabric and slide it in the gap. This step is where you want to make sure you don't have a huge "seam allowance" on your fabric. Too much fabric won't fit under the wooden frame, but be careful if you trim the edges to make sure that you're still leaving enough to cover the cork. (I hope that makes sense!) The corner of the putty knife is also perfect for getting small pieces of fabric under that frame, and works well in the corners.

I found what worked best for me was to pull the fabric tight and tuck it under the frame about six inches or so ahead of where I was working. That way I knew the fabric would stay nice and tight and I didn't have to worry about it pulling or wrinkling, then I could go back after the preliminary "tucking" and use the edge of the knife to make sure all of the material was tucked under the frame.

Once I got in to a groove, I think it took me about 30 minutes to work my way around the entire board. I used a tweezers to grab a couple of loose threads that were hanging out, and voila! I had my pretty damask cork board.

Go ahead and grab some push pins and pin away!

Beauty Bag: Mary Kay Primer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

So when it comes to make up, for the longest time I was a bare bones kind of girl. I would slap on some eyeliner and some mascara, swipe on some Chapstick, and I was good to go. Boom. Out the door.

I miss those days.

Once I hit my late teens/early twenties, my face turned in to a giant oil slick. Any makeup that I would put on melted off within hours. If I wanted my makeup to stay looking good, I would have to re-apply it several times throughout the day. My pores enlarged to the size of craters, and no matter how much I cleansed and scrubbed and exfoliated they were dark and icki and just not pretty.

So I added foundation to my routine to help cover it up. I figured that would smooth everything out and bring back the dewy look that I longed for from my teens. Yeah. Not so much. I could not for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong.

Enter Mary Kay Primer. I went to a consultant event with my friend, and at the event I got to try out some new products that I wouldn't normally use. The primer was one of those products, and when I first went to put it on, I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of unimpressed. The primer is a gel formula, and when you first squeeze it out of the tube it feels kind of greasy. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was being told to smear this oily feeling product on my face when I had already complained that my face was a giant oil manufacturing plant in the first place.

Please excuse the shadow under my nails that make them look dirty - I swear they're clean

The primer goes on feeling a little slimy, but it dries almost instantly to leave your face feeling silky smooth. It provides a smooth coat for your foundation to glide over and adhere to. My makeup lasts so much longer when I use my primer. When I go to wash my face at the end of the day, there is still foundation left there to wash off; it hasn't all melted away. Any foundation or blush I apply actually stays on top of my skin without sinking in to those moon-sized craters I was complaining about earlier. And my favorite part...it doesn't clog my pores at all. The almost powder-smooth finish it dries to doesn't settle in to my pores and make me break out. The other awesome part?? It contains an SPF 15 sunscreen. Two thumbs up for UV protection!

If you're not currently using a primer underneath your foundation, I would seriously recommend not only using a primer, but trying out Mary Kay's amazing primer in the pretty pink tube.

If you want to learn more about Mary Kay's Foundation Primer, or are interested in trying it out for yourself, check it out here.

*** As with my other Mary Kay reviews, all opinions are mine. I am not compensated to review the products. I purchase all of these products with my own money, and I use them in my daily life. If you shop with the link I provided, my friend Clarissa does receive compensation. She's good people. She dreams of making a career out of Mary Kay and becoming a regional director. I wouldn't link you to her site if she wasn't legit :) ***

My Next Project Printable

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0000

I have the perfect storm of a 4 bedroom new construction house, close proximity to three Goodwill stores, a love of the oops! paint section at Menards, and a Pinterest addiction that means at any given moment I have about a dozen different ideas for projects swimming around in my head. Some of these ideas are in the germinating stage, some I have the items for but I haven't purchased, and some I even have the stuff for and I'm midway through completing the actual project! I thought Pinterest might be a good way to keep track of my crafts and ideas, but all that's really accomplishing is inspiring more crafts and projects. What that's doing is making the inside of my head appear like a scary attic in some 1800's house that's dusty and cluttered and has crap lying all over the place.

I wanted a way to keep track of these projects, what I have purchased for them and what I still need to purchase, and even more, what steps I've taken and what still needs to be done. I figured a great place to keep track of this would be in my planner, which is somewhat like a third arm to me. If I lose it, I'm so toast.

I found a printable from Perideau Designs that was for "My Next Project."

Source

I love the information she had included on the printable, but it was a little unadorned for my tastes. I respond well to bright colors and patterns, and I love to surround myself with them. This is what I ended up with, and I'm making it available to share if anyone would like to use it. Enjoy!

Click here to download this fun printable.

Washi Tape Tab Dividers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

So, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it or not, but I'm a senior at UW-Milwaukee right now. I'm double majoring in Communication and Organizational Administration. I thought I was going to major in Sociology, but I apparently have some pretty bad ADD when it comes to my major. The Com and the OA was the original major, and it's interesting and relevant so yeah.

Anyway, the Sociology class I'm taking this semester is divided in to units. Because of my love of organization and pretty things, I wanted a way to nicely divide my binder for the class in to the units, but they didn't sell pre-made tabbed dividers in the quantity I needed. Plus, they aren't pretty.

Enter everyone's new favorite craft embellishment: washi tape! You can make anything pretty with washi tape.

So I gathered up my supplies:

A rotary cutter, manilla file folders, my labeler, a self-healing cutting mat, and a few different patterns of washi tape. I also had my three-hole punch on hand, and a three-ring binder.

I cut the manilla file folders in half down the fold, and kept the side with the tab, then ran a line of washi tape down the right edge of the folder, like so.

Then I added a second strip of tape to the tab of the folder, then used my rotary trimmer to cut the tape to match the rounded edges of the tab.

Then I used my labeler to print out the unit names, attached the label to the middle of the tab, and three hole punched the left side of the divider. See?

Since those file folders come with the tabs in three locations, I just alternated the tab locations for each unit. It makes my Sociology binder look prettier than it would have otherwise, and I feel much more organized, and it will be easier to find the information I'm looking for while I'm taking an exam or writing a paper.

Washi tape makes the world a prettier place!!

Beauty Bag: Mary Kay Botanicals Face Mask

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 02:40:00 +0000

So, way back in the day, I blogged about the skin care line that I use: Mary Kay Botanical Effects. And when I say I wrote this post awhile ago, I do mean awhile. Like, it's dated November 14, 2012. So the follow up to that post is finally coming four months later. Better late than never, right?!

The Botanical Effects line - with my favorite product up front!

In that post, I shared that there are four steps to the system, and that one of the steps is my absolute favorite beauty product ever. As in, if I had to go away to a desert island, and I could only take one product with me this is the product I would take. This product is the Mary Kay Botanical Effects Mask.

My bottle is getting a little empty :(

This mask is heaven. I always had a poor opinion of masks, because I hated the smell of a certain sulfur-based mask (yes, I'm looking at you Proactiv!) And they always dried out my face a little too much. The MK mask is the perfect compromise. It leaves my skin feeling so amazingly smooth. The first few times I used it, I kept rubbing my cheeks like a crazy person, then running up to Husband and saying "Touch my face!" Pretty sure he thought I was crazy, but he even commented how smooth my skin felt after using the mask. It also helps clean pores...I've had a time or two where the mask seems to pull a pimple out faster, which sounds like a bad thing, but it also makes the pimple go away so much faster it's insane! If I've got a particularly nasty pimple, I'll rub a bit on it before bed and leave it on overnight. By morning, it's so reduced it's barely noticeable.

In the winter, when my skin is a little bit drier, I tend to use the mask about 2-3 times a week. In summer, when I'm outside a lot and my skin gets all oily and nasty, I've used the mask as many as 5 times a week and I've never had any problems with overdrying. Because the mask isn't filled with nasty chemicals, it doesn't bleach my towels to some unrecognizable color, either, which is a pretty big win.

Any way you squeeze it, this mask is two thumbs up, fantastic, fine holiday fun. Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My First Printable!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:30:00 +0000

So earlier this week, I shared that one of my goals is to become more organized in 2013. Knowing myself, I know that if I have things written down and organized in one convenient location it makes things much easier for me to recall. I knew I wanted a planner, but I didn't want an "assignment notebook" type planner, even though schoolwork is one of the things I need to keep track of. I wanted something that could keep track of homework, housework, doctor's appointments, work commitments, Husband's schedules, family obligations, the blog, my budget, household projects, and my Project Life goal. I wanted a life planner.

After researching and blog stalking, I was introduced to the M by Staples Arc Discbound system. Similar to creating your own notebook, but way better. I loved how creative I could get with it and how pretty I could make things.

There are tons of printables online created by some amazingly talented women, and I looked through them to find the one that was best for me. A lot of them are oriented around planning for families. They have sections for menus, and the kids, and stuff that I just don't use. Then I found the super-adorable Peek at the Week planner printable from Jen over at IHeart Organizing. I loved the colors, the space for a shopping list, and the space for notes. She has a spot for a menu, but it's pretty small so it doesn't waste a lot of space for me. Most of all, I loved the layout she had. I've been in to blues and yellows lately, so I decided to create my own weekly page based off of Jen's. Then I thought, why not share it here? This is the first time I've ever done a printable, so any feedback is totally welcome.

Click here to download "A Peek at This Week" in the Monday - Sunday format.

Click here to download "A Peek at This Week" in the Sunday-Saturday format.

Enjoy!