An Orginized Space

Question:   Are weevils ever a good thing?

Answer: Yes!    

About a year ago, I bought a bag of rice that ended up infesting my whole grain shelf before I found the problem.  Actually, my hubby found the problem in a bite of his sandwhich.  Gross!  After throwing everything away, even the perfectly fine stuff in shelves below, he agreed to get containers for everything.  Normally he would have not seen the need, so yay for weevils.  Sick, huh?

That was round one of getting organized. A year later, I decided my New Year's resolution would be to get every closet and cupboard in my house in tip top shape.  I have given myself a year to do it.  Totally do-able!   I just finished my entire kitchen. I don't have a traditional walk-in pantry, but I have designated cupboards for everyhing that I like just as much.  My real "pantry" is in the mudroom and I would rather have everything closer to me in the kitchen.  That closet houses my appliances, bags, and office stuff.

 I won't bore you with pictures of the whole kitchen (even though I kind of want to).  Here are some of my favorite areas:

Snacks in penny candy jars and drinks

Spice cupboard.  My spice rack fits perfectly with room for my salt and pepper shaker.  I couldn't have made one better if I tried. I love it when stuff like that works out!  The middle shelf has more spices grouped by how frequently I use the item (red pepper in the back and dried onions in the front), and the top has bulk spices, salt and bread crumbs. 

Panty: drink mixes on top shelf, then crackers, grains, cereal, canned goods, box mixes, and syrups and sauces on the bottom

I put my bulk sized dry goods in glass canisters displayed on the bottom of my hutch.  I normally like things out of sight, but thought these looked nice and uniform.  What would you do?  Should they stay or should they go?

The last container will hold baked treats or homemade breads. I just need to make a {baked goods} label.

Baking cupboard: extra sugar on top (It's not in my cold storage because some kids got into it when I was not watching.  Have you ever had a whole room covered in powdered sugar?), then flour, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in the white and silver containers in the middle with the oils, and then baking spices and ingredients on the bottom.  I am still on the lookout for cute little jars for the items on the bottom.

It's nothing too fancy, but I love the look of all the cansiters and the peace of mind knowing it is all safe.  It has taken me a year to collect all these containers, but doing it a little at a time makes it affordable.  Here's to keeping it up the rest of year!
                                                         
Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!

Thrifted chair love

Have you ever seen something across the room that made your heart skip a beat?  I saw this vintage chair at DI and just had to have it.  I even stuffed it in the front seat of my car to get it home.  I think the loading guys were impressed.  I think I am going to paint the wood sky blue and put it in my room.  I love the dark wood too, so we'll just have to see! 

 Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!

You gotta have an ace in the hole....

and an ace IS a card afterall.....naturally, your mind would assume you get to see a card of the week! Right? You know you were thinking that!

A cute as a button wedding card:

Filled with fairytale wishes for the happy couple:

There is a silver stamped flower in the top right on the front of the card and the same silvery flower stamped on the lower right on the inside of the card. Oh how I wish you could see this silvery flower in person, it's so fun!

Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!

It's all in the cards...

Simple, easy, FUNTASTIC cards.....go make some today!

Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!

Curl up and Dye: How to get a canvas drop cloth any color you want!

I found a set of french chairs out by the dumpster during the great semesterly migration of Augus 2011. The best thing about college towns it that three times a year, most of the population is moving. So at the end of every Spring, Summer, and Fall the dumpsters are filled to the brim with potential. (And garbage. Mostly garbage.) Every once in a while we get lucky though. 

Here's the before:

If you're looking for a tutorial on how to re-upholster a french chair, look elsewhere. Many others have already explained this process far better than I ever could. Esspecially considering that my tutorial would go something like this: 

1) Find a cool chair in the garbage

2) Find a tutorial on how to re-upholster said chair.(Click here for a really comprehensive one @ Little Green Notebook)

3) Find someone who has a ton of knowledge and skill to help you out. (i.e. My mother).

4) Hope for the best.

And that's all there is to it! HA. 

But how about that color? That, I can tell you about.

I the look, feel, and cost of re-upholstering with canvas drop cloth. But I was torn, because I really wanted a pretty green chair. I went to JoAnn scouting for the perfect fabric, but the closest I could find to what I had in mind was  olive green suede. Expensive suede. Suede that, if we were to make a mistake and have to buy more, would cost us $60.00. And while, considering that the cost of the chair was nothing (aside from my dignity. Dumpster diving will do that to you. It was worth it.) we had a little bit of room on the budget. But not $60.00 dollars worth.

So I hatched a crazy idea. What if I found a green canvas dop cloth?

They don't make those. What if I made a canvas drop cloth green?

I used three bottles of Kelly Green Rit Dye for a 9x13 canvas dropcloth. I followed the instructions on the bottle for washing machine dying. 

The color was a little bit too "grassy", so we dyed it again mixing 1 bottle Kelly Green and 1 bottle Dark Brown. (I'm not sure why I didn't take any pictures at this point. Probably because I tired of the whole thing by then.) 

The mixture of the two colors toned it down just enough. If I had dyed it with just a bottle of brown dye to tone it down, the odds are good that it would have dyed the whole thing dark brown. 

Want to see a before?

And the after one more time:

I just love that green!

Rainbow Pony Party

My little girl turned one last week so I thought I'd share some pictures from her party.

I think everyone needs a hutch :) I decorated it with balloons and a tulle tutu she can wear around the house for dress up. The framed number 1 is made out of buttons and a repurposed frame.

Heart banners cut from felt and sewn together. This is the next day so they were a little floppy, but even then, they're pretty cute. I am reusing them for Valentine's day too :)

Easy centerpiece with jelly bellies and tissue paper in rainbow colors

The Spread. The framed ribbon cake was fun to make. I painted a frame and mat ivory, then covered the mat in glitter. Then I just used scrapbook paper, buttons and scrap ribbon to make the cake. I think I am going to sew a cute backdrop and tablecloth for my next party so it brings out the decorations more.

Carrying the pony theme, I called the drink station the Trough

Pulled Pork, AKA Three Little Pig Sandwiches (anything pony related would be disastrous)

Spinach salad with grape tomatoes, grated carrots, hard boiled eggs, peas, purple onions, and white cucumbers. I just couldn't think of anything that was blue that would be good in a salad to complete the rainbow theme. Maybe bleu cheese?

Every good pony needs these.

The fruit was supposed to be on skewers. I didn't get that far.

Neapolitan ice cream scooped into a muffin tin, topped with hot fudge, a cherry and whipped cream. I loved not having to scoop ice cream during the party.

Taste the Rainbow {cake}

Jane's little smash cupcake (with rainbow layers too)

I really had no budget for the party, so I had to get creative and make the decorations from things I had on hand. It was a fun challenge. Thanks for letting me share!

Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!

Fresh Christmas Wreath Mini-Makeover

Did anyone else out there snatch up a real live only $5.00 Christmas wreath at Lowes this weekend? I was all about it. We've never had any real greenery, (I have a set of three tiny fake trees we use for our Christmas tree) so I was excited to try it out. 

I'm not sure what I was expecting for $5.00, but when I got to Lowes I found that the wreaths were a little small and bare.  Not exactly jolly.  But I knew I could beef it up with a little creativity, so I got it anyway.

The first thing to go was that sad little bow. I like bows, but it was just too smashed up and wrinkled to save the wreath. I snipped it off and immediately felt a little better. Then I went outside and gathered.

The boxwood hedges around our apartment are a little worse for the wear, but I'm sure they'll recover...

I looked around the house, and I found a bunch of dried white flowers that weren't being used for anything too special.

Then I just stuck the branches in. They just wedge right in there. Easy peasy. I hung it on the inside of our front door with some ribbon from the dollar store, and viola:

A pretty little $5.00 wreath! I'm loving the fresh scent of pine needles it brings into the house. I'm a little worried about it drying out before Christmas, though. Any hints on keeping it fresh? Should I be watering this bad boy?