Monday, July 26, 2010

Mudroom Redo



I am going to apologize first, This is the wordiest post I have EVER done! Sorry about that but I thought maybe some of you could benefit from my quest for the best storage!!
I have been trying for years to renovate our mudroom. I took better before pictures but can't find them now! bummed! It has gone through many phases and storage ideas. I tried a table that was meant for the kitchen that was bar height to be used to pay bills etc. .. . We ended up using this as a dumping ground. An in-expensive bench found at Lowes ended up have shoes piled in front of it instead of in it. When we renovated our Attic I had an estimate done for built in cabinets and the estimate came back at almost $4000! Really!!! I thought truly I can come up with something that will work for under that!
Well it took me 3 years and it is finally done! Here are two pictures and I will try my best to describe everything. I searched so long to pull everything together and truly one trip to Ikea and another to Target and we are set!
Here is what I purchase and the approximate price:
Ikea Aspelund 3 door Wardrobe $199
2 small chests from Ikea for His & Her shoes, $39/each
2 baskets from Ikea $16.99
From Target, Barrel Planter for $19.99, 3 plastic drawer organizers $6.99/each, 3M Hooks (4 pkgs) 2.99/each, Post It organizers 2 pkgs for total of $12.00
Thirty OneSquare Utility Totes $24.50 each
Now math is so not my strong point but I believe this adds up to around $460. So for less than $500 and a lot of sweat (and blood). I managed to do the mudroom and have great storage and looks to boot! :-) I will have to confess, we did barter out the painting with a friend. We exchanged a 1 year old love seat for his painting services. It was so worth it! I did however thanks to many of you blogging about it do the wainscoting all by myself. It isn't the most perfect job but I am very impressed with the outcome.
Here is a picture of the wardrobe from Ikea!

This room was very hard to take a picture of the whole thing! Along the one wall as you can see, I have the Ikea wardrobe, baskets as mentioned on top for storage, and on either side of the ward robe I have "his" and "her" chests that my kids can sit on if needed and store the adult shoes. The art of the "Big girl panties" I posted before hangs on my side and on the other side is my hubby's art. He is the CTO of his own company so yes I am married to a geek (and love him deeply for it)! I got the idea for the art on another blog that has the "Be Calm and Carry On" link to it. The message board is on the left hand side of the room and it came from my Grandfather's farm window. When I got it the glass was already out if it and I tacked a white erase board on the back and hung it. It keeps phone numbers handy.

The photos below are from the inside of the wardrobe. I tried to maximize as much storage of out this 3 door wardrobe as I could! It has a hanging bar up top behind the two far left doors (one of which is mirrored!). Inside this I have an area for my kids shoes (the thirty one organizers with their names on it) and the pink and blue bins are for mittens/hats. On the inside of these doors I laminated a page with the days of the week, put it on a clipboard and hung this on a 3m hook. I am making one for each child and hope this will help them remember assignments and other activities. Behind the 3rd door of the wardrobe there are shelves, my husband & I each have a storage tote from Thirty One that holds our mail, gloves other "crap":-) The middle and bottom shelf I have put our file with the bills extra paper for our printer that we have downstairs, and used the 3M hooks to hang scissors, keys etc . . On the inside of the third door I found these great pockets from Post It. I was going to make and hang fabric pockets but these were already made and at a total of $12, it was a good bargain. I have one for coupons, another for menus and another for hubby's mail.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Freebie Friday!

Winner!: Tammy from Flat Creek Farm

Congratulations Tammy please send me an email with your mailing information and I will get this out to you right away!

Freebie Friday and Give-away!
Almost didn't make it this week! The dog days of summer are really biting me here in VA! I can't believe we are looking at a weekend of 100+ days! UGH!!! Seriously I have been wanting Fall since June 1!

I really loved doing the bottle cap project I posted previously. The hardest part of the whole project was getting the photos to the right size. So I thought I would offer up a sheet of images that you can print out and use easily for the project. Just right click on the image below and you should be able to open it and print it out.


Now on to the giveaway!!! I will randomly select one poster to receive a set of the pictured bottle cap magnets below. The winner will be announced on Sunday, so you have until then to post. Thought I would extend this since I was so late in posting! (Please only US mailing addresses!)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Bottle cap Magnet Project

Usually during the summer I like to do some crafts with my Kids. Last year I created some custom art for their play room. This summer I decided to try something I have seen and wanted to do for a while. I collected a ton of bottle caps last summer and we selected some images to put into our bottle caps to make magnets. Her are the how to with pictures! The hands are those of my 7 year old daughter. This was a very fun project for her (not the pouring of the resin that should be for an adult only)! My 3 year old of course wanted to be in on it too (in the next to last picture below) and he could operate the punch by pressing it against the table. As usual when doing crafts with kids, check your inner "Martha" at the door.
Materials: 1" circular punch, bottle caps (cleaned and not bent), glue, Resin & the catalyst, old cookie tray, magnets.

1) Select your photos and print. I used a photo editing tool to scale my photos down to 1.5" square.

2) Using a 1" circular punch to cut out your photos. (I wouldn't recommend hand cutting) The circular punch can be picked up for under $10 at any craft store that sells scrapbook products.

3) Glue down your photos to the inside of your bottle cap. Note: Wash your caps before using and use only those that are flat and not bent.

6) Using Clear Casting Resin & the catalyst, follow the directions and mix the two together. I used the measurements for the 1/4" single cast technique. When they say mix in a well ventilated area they mean. This stuff SMELLS!!! So I would use this either outside or in a well ventilated garage.

7) Use an old cookie tray and place the bottle caps on the tray. You want a very even surface, mine was not and some of them are filled incorrectly. Once the catalyst is mixed with the resin pour the solution into your bottle caps. Note: Use gloves and you do not want this stuff on your hands. You need to fill each cap to the top and not over.

8) Allow to set over night and then you can hot glue the magnets on the back. You can also create thumbtacks instead!

I am thinking of doing some for family Christmas presents. The best one is that of my great great grandfather and is in Sepia. There was some distortion of colors but I don't think I waited for the glue to dry. Have fun and if you try it let me see!!! :-)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Art inspired yet again by my kids!

Okay for the last week I have felt like hollering "Put on our Big girl Panties and deal with it!" It seemed like everything my daughter decided was too hard she would give up on. This is not something new and totally against my personality which is to keep at it until you figure it out. . . . . .aka stubbornness. So I created this piece of art to hang in my newly remodeled mud room. I will see this every time I leave or enter the house, I figure it is a good mantra to head out the day with. While I was painting the panties my daughter came into the room and with a very concerned face asked "uh . . Mom why are you painting a pair of panties?" Made for a funny conversation. I plan on posting pics of the mud room later in the week as I am trying to put the finishing touches on it. Oh and I need ideas for a companion piece to hang on my husband's side of the room. Any ideas for funny but cute sayings with a masculine feel?
Thinking of offering this for sale in an Etsy store, so please tell me what you think!!!!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Freebie Friday! Christmas In July Theme

Update!

Hmmm I know you are all waiting on the edge of your seats to know who has won!!! ;-) Congratulations to the Winner: Osage Bluff Quilter!!! Please send me an email with your mailing address and I will get these out to you directly!

Hopefully I will gain some more followers soon, who are interested in my give aways. I know I am a new blogger and it will take time! So thanks for all that are listening out there and hope you have a great July. I think retailers are trying to cash in on Christmas in July as I see it all over the place. They are either hoping for better sales or are trying to keep people cooled down by reminding them of winter.



I know there have been several other blogs out there that have done a Christmas in July post so I thought I would borrow that idea.
One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is to send cards out. Believe it or not (actually if you know me this isn't a stretch to imagine) I used to do a handmade small watercolor for each card I would send. Yes this took me a while however I was young, and single! Now married, with 2 kids I value sleep too much to take on that endeavor again. However I always make my own cards in some way. Last year I used the Creative Memories Storybook software to create my cards using vintage Christmas Post cards I scanned into the software.
Above are the examples of the cards I sent out (just the fronts). I used parts of each vintage postcard to create my own using the cutting tools within the software. This became quite addicting! I also loved that I could virtually cut the postcards up without having to touch the original at all.
In the spirit of Freebie Friday I have created a small tag for you to use on your own. Again please use this for your own creations and not for profit!



Since I do love giving . . .post a comment and I will use a random number generator to give that poster the set of tags pictured below. You will recieve in the mail (USA only please) a set of 6 tags (2 of each). 4 of them have glitter embelishment. These are all original creations from parts and pieces of vintage post cards. The back is blank so you could write your own message or continue embelishing if you like! I will announce the winner on Saturday! Good Luck!





Sunday, July 11, 2010

Exploring Priscilla Hommon's Album


As I posted previously I am lucky enough to be going through one of my grandmother's albums. The collection isn't chronologically organized but then again some of the pages have come off the binding and it could be ordered differently than she intended it to.
I came across a small envelope that was titled "Treasures of Priscilla R. Trimmer" (see picture). I pulled out two small newspaper clippings. I found her birth announcement and another curious article. It turns out that at age two Priscilla swallowed a straight pin. So there I am holding the pin in one hand and the newspaper article in another and realized a little too late that I am holding THE pin that she swallowed!!! Ewwwwwe!!! Then rational thought took hold and I realized that probably any germs would not survive that long (and if they do please don't tell me about it)! Funny how swallowing a straight pin made the news. Funnier still is that she or someone decided to put this all in a little envelop and label it as a treasure!!
It also didn't escape me that 2 year olds no matter when they are born seem to do similar things. Seriously what must have been going through her mind to pick that straight pin up and swallow it! Hope this gives you a chuckle or at least makes you hide all your straight pins if a 2 year old happens to be in your home! I hope to post more discoveries this week!









Friday, July 9, 2010

Free Download Friday plus bonus give away!

Free Download Friday!!!!
And the winner is Brenda!
The question was is there a Hebrews 14? The answer is no, but my very first Bible study was a Beth Moore study. She talked about Hebrews being centered on people living a faith centered life and asked the question what will your Hebrews 14 look like? I loved that thought and wanted to make a t-shirt that reads Hebrews 14. You would either get people asking you what is in Hebrews 14 or others saying your t-shirt is wrong . .there is no Hebrews 14! Either way it would be a great ice breaker and allow you to share your faith story.
On another note I realized if I am going to be doing a free gift I need to make it a little more exciting so next Friday I hope to use the random generator to make the give away a little more exciting! Thanks for reading!
I am hoping my creative juices keep up with this endeavor!! I am hoping to post a free item to download and use every Friday. The good part is I think I have a pretty good stash of items to pull from in case of emergencies! For my first freebie please click here to download a pdf document that has some great tags on it!!! Use them for whatever your creative brains can think up!! (Oh and I would love to post pictures of how you used the tags just email me)!! Also if anyone has a better way to post downloads please let me know. It took the better part of an hour and many screams at my two kids for them to stop asking me questions until I figured it out. I wanted to post a sheet of the tags as a PDF and not individual images to make it easier on you. Does anyone out there in "blogosphere" know how to post PDF files easily to a blog?


I absolutely love giving and would LOVE to give away the hand made tags pictured below. The are each unique and are blank on the back for your special message. The come packaged in a bag.



The first person that posts the correct answer to the below question will be the recipient of the tags above.

In the Bible is there a Hebrews chapter 14?

I will post the winner on Saturday July 10th and tell you why I ask this question! Hope everyone is staying cool!!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Grandma's album

After purchasing some antique postcards at a wonderful shop here in Richmond VA my Mom told me she thought she had her Mom's old album. Lo and behold she brought a rich treasure over to my home a few days later! What a treasure trove of wonderful vintage valentines, old poems she wrote, photos and miscellaneous other mementos that obviously meant a great deal to her. My Grandmother's name was Priscilla Hommon (maiden name Trimmer). Above is a picture of her father, George Charles Trimmer. I will have to say this is one of my favorite photos now! I would have LOVED to have had the chance to know him, so if someone has invented that time machine sign me up on a waiting list! :-) My Mom said he was known for his humorous side and it shows completely through this photo.

Below are two more treasures I have come across and this doesn't even reach half way down page #1!! So I will share over the next few days/weeks, my finds.




I am also going to try to offer a free download of my own creation every Friday. I am hoping to have time to create this weekly but am now asking for some grace to be forwarded to me if I don't! :-)
To all of you who are now following me as a result of Karen from Sew Many Ways, I feel very blessed and uplifting. It is very inspiring and motivating when you know there is a good chance your posts will be read! Thank you and I hope to encourage some smiles along the way as you have made me smile!