Tutorial: Washer and Ribbon Necklace

     School has been back for a month, which explains why I haven't been updating recently.  I have lots of projects in the works, but I haven't finished most of them yet.  Here is a fun 15 minute project.   Try it out and let me know how it goes!
  
     I love going to the local hardware store and looking for fun materials to use.  The other day I was on Pinterest and saw a cool jewelry idea.  This is cheap, easy and, most importantly, cute!  I have made two of them, but with all of the customization options (ribbon color, washer size, lengths, number of ribbons, etc) I know that I will be making many more in the future.


After the jump you can see the full tutorial.

Upgrades to My Other Home

    If the title of this post is confusing to you, I will explain.  Don't worry.  I haven't been holding back an entire residence from you.  I'm speaking of the place that from August to June I spend more time in than my real home: my classroom.

When I arrived at school this morning I had five kits of IdeaPaint waiting for me! (Yes, the Saturday before I officially go back to school.  What can I say?  I'm excited!) 

    The reason that I am sharing this on my blog is because they sell kits for 50 square feet which is small enough for residential use.  I can't wait to show you how it turns out.  I am painting the top of all of my desks, both of my old blackboards, and a large wall in my room.  They also make a clear formula that would be great to use over fun colors.

    Here is a picture of a classroom that inspired me.  I will start painting on Monday.  Check back to see how it turns out!  

Tutorial: Jurassic Frame

Rawr!  Isn't this fun!?  And the best part is that it cost me $2!

After the jump you can see a full tutorial brimming with photos and helpful hints so you can make your own prehistoric photo holder.

Tutorial: Etched Glass Bakeware

    I worked on this today after realizing that so much of my bakeware is missing or has to belong to someone else because it doesn't look familiar at all.  After this project, my bakeware will be a memorable item that will get back to me even if I forget it at a friend's house.

    If you saw my paper pendant tutorial, then you might be thinking, "Dang, she likes the pi symbol."  It's true.  I'm going to attribute it to missing my students and classroom.  In this case though, I think it's pretty clever.  A pie pan with a pi symbol!

After the jump you can see a full tutorial with pictures of how to make your own.  It's so easy and inexpensive!

Tutorial: Paper Pendants

    If you have been reading my blog for a while, then you are well aware that I reallllly wanted a Silhouette Cameo.  Back in May, I finally ordered one.  I wasn't anticipating that it would be back ordered until the beginning of July.  The Cameo came in the mail the other day, and I got down to business right away.  Time to make a nerdy necklace.

    Before you say, "What the heck?"...  Let me tell you two important things about me.  I am a math teacher.  Beyond that fact, Pi Day is my favorite day of the year.  Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th.  Wait for it. Wait for it.  Pi is approximated by 3.14.  March 14th is 3/14. 

After the jump you can see all the steps to make this beauty (or a paper pendant of any other design).

Bathroom Tile Project: Day 3 "Tile Installation"

    My sister's idea for the title of this post was Day 3: "Party in the Bathroom Tile USA featuring Tiley Cyrus".   Other ideas brainstormed were "The Tile High Club", "Goin' a Tile a Minute", "Tile 'n Out", and "The I-tile-ian Job".   Or what about "Tiler Perry's Big Fat Tilin' Barbeque Weekend"?

After the jump you can see all of the ups and downs of day three.  Finally, we are seeing some progress!

Bathroom Tile Project: Day 2 "Unexpected Concrete"

    Day 2 of our bathroom tiling adventure was a rough day.  We started out by going to Lowe's to pick up cement board.  The plan was to lay that over the existing cement and adhere it with some sort of adhesive.  That way we could raise up the floor and have a level surface.  When we got to Lowe's we learned that you can only screw cement board into something.  And that something could not be cement. Womp, womp.  We made some calls and got advice.  Unfortunately that advice was that we would have to mix and pour a concrete floor on top of what we had.

Here is the patch for the sink and the concrete that we poured.  Plus I'm giving you a sneak-peak at what the tile looks like.

After the jump, you can see all the fun (and no-so-fun) details of Day 2.

Bathroom Tile Project: Day 1 "DEMO TIME!"

    On Thursday, my pops arrived in Chicago and we got right down to business tearing up tile.  Here is the before view of the bathroom so we can all remember where we were starting.

    Ugh.  This tile has been the eye sore of our place since day 1.  I have invested far too much time trying different cleaning products in the hope that it will make the tile white and beautiful.  I have scrubbed on my hands and knees with a grout brush, bleach, cleanser, tile products, you name it.  I shudder just looking at this picture.

After the jump you can see the whole demolition process and all of the unexpected things that we found under that nasty tile.

Tutorial: Make Lego inspired Boxes (Giftwrap or storage)

    I am going to a birthday party for my friend, Jana.  Being that she is one of my craftiest friends, I wanted to make her something.  It's a no-present kind of gathering, so I made something small that I thought she would like.  I originally wanted to make her tea towels with Legos appliqued or printed on them, but I came up against some obstacles.   Instead, I decided to make her a gift box that could be used to store lots of different things.  Here is the finished product!  What do you think?

After the jump you can see exactly how I made it.

Guess who is making an ourdoor bench.

I am!

Mike and I had a lovely time at Lowe's this morning.   We picked up everything that we need to make a custom L-shaped bench seat to fit in the corner of our deck.  Due to one unforeseen roadblock with Lowe's not cutting wood at 45 degrees, we aren't going to get too far today.  I just wanted to show you a few pictures to get you excited.

Mmm, cedar!

Ooo, cinder blocks!

Those are my only clues.  Check back later to see how the project turns out.  Wish me luck!

My Summer To-Do List for the House

I have checked one thing off of my summer to-do list.  I have sorted through our glasses and given away the ones that I don't like or really don't match.  Here is the before and after of our built-in that we use to store our glasses.
BEFORE:

 AFTER:

I have left some space for more Guiness pint glasses and regular pint glasses.  I just couldn't stand having so many different types of glasses.  Also, I moved my mason jar storage out to this space so my pantry could become a little less full.  It's working for me so far.

I think that if I share my summer to-do list with you, I might be more likely to get a lot of it done.  So, here it goes.
-retile the bathroom with small white hexagon tile
-take down the drywall on one of the walls in the dining room to reveal the exposed brick
-put large hexagons of different opacity on the glass shower doors
-hang wooden blinds in the front room windows
-paint the back door
-paint the 2nd bedroom and try out stenciling on the wall
-seriously decorate our bedroom
-get rid of mismatched glasses and reorganize hutch
-hang a bunch of art and fun things in the hallway
-hang new curtains in the dining room
-finish the penny countertop
-put crown molding in the dining room and front room
-rehang the giant mirror about the "fireplace"
-reupholster the four chairs in the front room
-hang pegboard/desk organizer on the wall above my desk in the 2nd bedroom
-create a daybed/couch out of pallets for the 2nd bedroom
-clean/organize the garage
-find a new light fixture for the kitchen
-finish that stupid cootie catcher lamp (maybe)

I'm sure that I'm missing a few things, so I will continue to update this.  I would like to stress that this is highly ambitious for me, but I might as well keep track of what I want to do to my house somewhere.

Cheers!  May you have a highly productive week.

Jazzing Up My MacBook (Semi-Tutorial)

    Ahhh!  Look at this!  Target has a relatively new line of great supplies in the kids crafting section. (Think where chalk, Crayola kits, pipe cleaners and the like would be.)  Yes, I'm 27, but clearly I like bright, fun stuff.  I'm excitable.  I have been looking at these things as well as some crazy color crayons which I plan to create at a later time.  I have been looking at the contact paper and paper tape for about two weeks.  Today was my day to purchase them.

 So naturally I wanted to stick this stuff all over everything (not exaggerating), but I opted to try it out on my MacBook.  Awesomeness follows.

After the jump you can see how great these products are!

Tutorial: Metal Milk Crate Coffee Table

   New coffee table for the living room: check.  Recognize those metal crates? They are from the Kane Country Flea Market from last month.  I got them for $5 each specifically to make a table like this.  This was my first time staining wood as well as my first time using polyurethane.  (Aww, she's growing up so fast.)

    I got this idea while I was on Pinterest a while ago.  It's from a great blog called A Beautiful Mess.  Once I found the metal milk crates, I knew that it was time to make this project a reality.  The full tutorial with lots of pictures and copious explanation about how to make this yourself is after the jump.  Enjoy!

Become a Rug Designer!

   I saw this in a store the other day and was completely enamored.  I think I audibly oooo-ed.  The company is called Vecco.  They have stencils, spray/dye and sealants to create your own rug design.  The thought of making my own rug design easily makes my heart flutter.  Imagine getting a plain rug and being able to put any color or design on it.  Oh, the cost effectiveness.  Oh, the creative possibilities.

   I am saving, brainstorming and lusting after this.  As soon as I set my mind on a design, I will let you know.

Domino! It's back!

   Good news, world!  Domino is back!  Well, sort of.  They are making a seasonal special issues.  I spotted the Spring/Summer issue and squealed in Lowes today.  My dad was very confused.  I didn't even check to see how much it was ($10.99).  I just bought it.  Here she is:

   Wow, there is so much wonderful stuff!  Amazing homes, designer tips, and just general eye candy.  Here is one of the photos that I loved. (I had a very hard time picking what to share with you.)

    Aren't these stairs glorious?  I don't have any stairs to pimp, but if I did, they would be painted.  There are a few other great ideas for stairs in the magazine.  I went looking for a website, but their website doesn't have any content.  Hopefully, it will soon.  You know that I will let you know.

Decorating Our Wedding Space

When we were planning our wedding, we knew that we wanted somewhere other than the usual hotel ballroom.  We also wanted a place that we could actually decorate. (Not 50 foot ceilings, or gigantic spaces that weren't suited for decorating)

Our wedding budget was eight to nine thousand dollars.  Just typing that out makes me feel weird because that is so much money.

Let the justifying begin:  We had 100 people attend, served food and drinks, and DIY-ed the heck out of things.  Our biggest expense was the venue.  As I'm sure you can imagine, we did lots of hunting for cool venues.  After looking at museums, art galleries, old mansions, places on Lake Michigan, and on and on, I was starting to get discouraged.  Most places charged around $5,000 plus they required you to go through their caterers which was so over budget they were all out.  So where the heck can we have a cool wedding?!

We go so lucky when I found this fantastically perfect loft space, The Westgrand Studio for $2,500 including insurance and extra stuff.  Plus we were able to get in the day before to decorate and the day after to clean up and get chairs and tables picked up.  That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's rare.

They let us bring in food, serve our own beer and wine, and pretty much do whatever we want.





After the jump, you can see how we decorated this wonderful raw space.

Easy way to display random things

I like to hold onto postcards that people send me, random pictures, photobooth pictures, cool advertisements, oh who am I kidding, anything visually appealing.  Because of this habit, I have a few boxes and folder just marked "Keep".  The items aren't classy enough to frame, but also are too cool for the fridge.

Here are the items that I wanted to display.  There is an awesome "Bunny" print from Tugboat Print Shop.  I have a few wedding pics,  3 post cards from the Art Institute that I liked, a postcard from the Van Gogh Museum that I sent to Mike, a great Golden Girls card from Caitlin, some photobooth strips and cool Chicago skyline card.


My friend Jen had super cool curtain rods that she used to hang polaroids.  I loved it so much, but the long hallway that I have wouldn't work for a metal rod.  They are all too short.  One day poking around Ikea, I found the perfect answer!

After the jump you can see the finished product.

The not-so-glamourous side of crafting

To say that project-ing is always fun would be a total fib.  When tiling, painting, gluing, etc there is usually a moment when I want to give up or take short cuts.  Usually crafting has a lower frustration level, but this project is really giving me trouble.

This is my annoyed face.

Creating Storage

I have a lot of stuff!  Every few months I go through a purging phase and try to give away things that I am not using.  That being said, I still need to find organized homes for lots of things.  Mike and I both need functional workspaces, so our second bedroom has two desks.  My old desk just wasn't cutting it.  It was constantly cluttered and really didn't store much of anything.

I looked for a long time trying to find the perfect desk.  One important limitation is that I never want to spend a lot of money.  One day at Ikea, my wheels started turning and I ended up with this:

See how I made it and and get a closer look at all of the stuff I am able to fit in it after the jump.

Make a Record Notebook

Good morning!  Checking in after 6 hours of amazing crafting time yesterday. It was so fun, per usual.  At this Ladies Craft Day my craftiest friend, Jana, taught me how to make a notebook out of a vinyl record.

Hall and Oates "Private Eyes",

Average White Band "Self Titled",

Steely Dan "Pretzel Logic"

I made three of these beauties today.  It was so easy, I was ready to make two more after my first one.  Jana is so amazing, she made almost 20 in one day!
The front is the cardboard album cover.  The back is the actual vinyl.









After the jump you can see the full tutorial with lots of pics.