Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Ceiling Design Inspiration with Hometalk




Are you familar with Hometalk?  Hometalk is an amazing site that allows you to post ideas, ask questions and gain a ton of inspiration for any type of project related to your home. You do not need to be a blogger to post on Hometalk. The community of members is supportive and friendly. Hometalk has many ways for you to save ideas you have found and want to be able to refer back to in the future. You can clip posts from Hometalk onto your virtual clipboard and categorize them in seconds.

I have created a board on my Hometalk account that shares the some pretty amazing ceiling ideas. I shared our bead board drop ceiling project on Hometalk recently. I was so elated that Hometalk members commented and shared their thoughts about our project.




Here are just some of the amazing posts that I have clipped to my clipboard of 22 fantastic ceiling ideas on Hometalk.


Beth from Make Me Pretty Again made a masterpiece when she created this ceiling. I cannot believe how gorgeous it turned out. You have to check this project out on her Hometalk post.



Turns out there is more than just a standard ceiling medallion option out there. You can stencil your own like Patricia did in this hometalk post.  


Julie from Follow Your Heart Woodworking shares an amazing tutorial on how to create faux wood beams for your ceiling.  She even shares how she put pot lights in them as well.


Make sure you check out my clipboard on Hometalk to check out my 22 Fantastic Ceiling Designs.
Thank you for stopping by!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Much Needed Storage Project


This post is not about anything spectacular. However, I do love to be organized, so I may feel that this is spectacular after all. Rob is a PE teacher, and with that comes sneakers galore. These sneakers once inside our home are picked up by our labrador retriever and placed in various rooms in the house. We really must train Lance to place them in pairs rather than scattering the shoes without their partners.

We have a little space at the bottom of our steps in the garage that I thought would be a great drop off area. Rob used some scrap wood to build this shoe organizer and shelving unit.  It is now home to his shoes, and believe me this actually is not all of them. I think the man may have more shoes than me when it is all said and done.  Obviously I am nothing like Amy from While Wearing Heels. :)

He used some beadboard to line the back of the organizer. He also left some open shelves to fit either his snow boots in the winter.  Right now it is the place to store the balls that seems to not be able to find a place to call home other than the garage floor.  I picked up a metal basket from Target on clearance for $4, and figured I could use it for various things I want to drop in along the way.

All together it would have cost roughly $40 in wood to create this without our scrap wood pile. A lot more cost effective and larger than the comparitively priced organizers I have seen out there.  Another bonus is the available premade shoe organizers never seemed to fit the shoes that Rob had anyways. This one was built to fit his shoes perfectly.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Growth Chart

This project has been on our to do list for a while. Rob was able to complete it this weekend, and we are thrilled with the outcome.


We had some mahogany boards that were leftover from a project at my parent's home. The sentimental part is that they just sold their home two weeks ago, and now we have a piece of it with us always.  

He used a biscuit joiner to put together a few pieces of the wood. Then he used a good old fashioned planer to get the boards even and smooth. When all of the boards were attached he used his router to create a decorative edge around the growth chart.  He then stained it with some left over gray stain from another project.  I took this picture outside so you could see the wood a little better with the stain.



I purchased some vinyl growth chart stickers off the site Sassy Steals on morning for only $3. I had a credit which made it 50% off the already great price.  It was a lot less expensive then I would have been able to do on my Silhouette, and a lot less time consuming.  I just found a similar product on another daily deal site this morning. The site is called Jane and it has great daily deals too.
 Now it is hanging up in the boys room ready for us to record their growth. Rob started the chart a few inches below their birth weight.  He hopes they surpass the 6'5" mark one day though.
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed our newest project.

Monday, July 14, 2014

On the Go Diaper Pouch - No Sew


Last week I bought a few new crib sheets for Ty and Davis at Target. The sheets came in a fabric pouch, and I thought of a perfect way to reuse them for my needs.

I turned them into on the go diaper pouches. Each pouch fits two diapers, a small ziploc bag of wipes and a few diaper trash bags easily. 


Last year I made several fabric rosettes while I was in my continuing education for real estate. Yes, I was in class when I made them. They do not mind what you do as long as you are looking at the instructor and paying attention. I found out that I could easily make these without even looking at the rosettes themselves. I glued a few of them on the top flap. I made a few more pouches and placed them in various purses of mine.  It is a lot easier to take these on a quick trip to the store than a giant diaper bag.

I realize that these maybe be easy to make if you are someone who can sew. Since I am not one of these people this is a great substitute. 


Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your week!  I am hoping to stop by my friend Sharon's tag sale for Elizabeth & Co. I'm so lucky it is just a few minutes up the road. 

Friday, July 11, 2014

Transportation Wall Art




Well it is official. Ty and Davis are crawlers and climbers. They are not content unless they are climbing on one of their toys or family members. Wish us luck! I have been busy making food for them, but sometimes on the go or in a rush I use the food pouches.  They have the colorful twist off tops on them, and I have been collecting them hoping to use them for crafts. 


The other day I had a rare moment where the boys were napping simultaneously for more than an hour. I brought my Silhouette Cameo out and cut out some vinyl shapes in various colors.    I cut the shapes out on the Cameo and simply just adhered them to the canvases I had leftover from a previous project. I used a glue gun to attach the food pouch tops to make them the wheels of various modes of transportation. Wynn requested a helicopter, and said that there was a wheel at the top to spin the propeller. She chose a purple lid for that particular canvas.



This project will hang in the newly designed play area once I get it all organized. I am still trying to make decisions on what to keep around for the boys and how to store the toys more efficiently.  


Some of these shapes came in a set of two or four. I purchased all of them through the Silhouette Online Store for less than a $1 a set.





I think they turned out simple and cute. I still have plenty of food pouch lids left. I am thinking of making a game for Wynn next. Maybe there will be another nap time soon that I will be able to get something fun created.  Enjoy your weekend! Thought I'd share the most recent attempt at a family shot. Four out of the five looking is not bad! :)



Here are some other projects I made with my Silhouette Cameo:

Beverage Tub

Piggy Bank

Land of Nod Inspired Artwork

Hair Accessories Storage

PBK Inspired Easter Buckets


Monday, July 7, 2014

Favorite Cookie Recipes

I've actually gotten into the swing of baking again. We had several parties over the weekend, and I volunteered to bring dessert to each of them. Here are some of my favorites that I have found via Pinterest. The blogs that these come from share some delicious recipes. Make sure you follow them through email or social media to get their recipes in the future.

Also, please pin images from their sites. That will mean the future pins will go to directly to the recipes instead of here.

These Rolo Cookies shared on the blog Six Sisters' Stuff are delicious and easy to make. You literally use four ingredients.  Talk about perfect for someone like me!

These cookies are from the blog Taste & Tell.  Like the Rolo Cookies these are a cake mix recipe too. These taste amazing with the strawberry cake flavor. Wynn especially loves these because they are pink.

The blog Sugar Cooking shares this out of this world recipe for Pretzel Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookies. The added pretzel bits make this one of my favorites. Unfortunately this blog has not had new posts in a while, but there are several delicious recipes shared.



 These Smores Cookies from Six Sisters' Stuff are fantastic. They were a big hit when I brought them to the parties over the weekend. They take a few steps to make, but they are simple. This recipe is going to be a go to in my house from now on.

These Meyer Lemon Cookies by My Baking Addiction are so chewy and yummy. They are another easy to make recipe, and the lemon zest added in make them taste even better. I always send some cookies over to my neighbors after I bake them, and their friend had one and said it was the best cookie she ever had!

I know you probably had a lot of treats over the holiday weekend if you were celebrating the 4th, but I promise you these are worth making for yourself to enjoy anytime.