Lampshade Makeover

So the day finally came where we have moved Dax upstairs into his big boy room and I have finally been able to work on little Fi's room. Our budget for this little one is much smaller than it was for Dax as we started a new business last year so I am once again digging through our basement of wonders to find things I can use. 

One of the things I wanted to do this time was to have my husband install a dimmer switch in the nursery. Because the reality is nothing says your baby and yourself will not go back to sleep at 3am like popping on a full blown light to change a diaper at that time of night! My husband was gracious enough to accommodate this request, even though I know he doesn't like working with electricity, and especially the electricity in our house which was built in 1902. 

After the switch was installed I realized that the fixture in that room doesn't have a shade... of any kind... Just two light bulbs hanging from the cheapest fixture you can possibly buy in a hardware store. I would have loved to install a pretty little chandelier for her but just couldn't justify spending the money. 

But I did remember I had this vintage drum shade in the basement that I just couldn't seem to part with over the last few years. I kept thinking I would find some way to make it relevant again. I was pretty sure as long as it would attach to the fixture I could make this work! Sure enough after a "dry fit" I was off to make it a special little piece in little Fi's room. 

Lets be clear, I would love to be "crafty" but the reality is I'm what you would call a lazy crafter. If the project involves more than 30 mins of my time I'm probably gonna screw it up or leave it half finished in a corner of my house. The nice thing about this one is I was pretty sure I just needed glue, fabric, and ribbon. 

I started by finding my 3M  Super 77 adhesive spray. Its super sticky and made for things like car upholstery. Its a step up from your run of the mill crafting spray glue. 

A note... Do not under any circumstances use this inside your home. It smells and will get all over everything. It is not forgiving.

The i got my fabric, and cut to approximate length and width of each of the drums. I sprayed the glue on the back of the fabric and on the drum itself and slowly stuck them together being careful not to leave any bubbles. Do this in small increments and it will be much easier than spraying each one entirely. 

Then I trimmed down the excess fabric to as close to the edge of the shade as possible. See this is the lazy crafting coming into play. I could have cut these to perfect size but that would have meant more time, patience, and materials so NOPE! Not gonna do it and you can't make me. 

I ended up with both bases covered semi neatly and probably could have left it at that and hung the shade. But I love you little girl so mommy is going to spend the extra 15 mins to add some trim. Just for you. Seriously once you are here you'll understand why this extra 15 mins on a craft project is special. 

Enter my favorite and not so favorite crating tool...the glue gun. I love how easy a glue gun is but I know every single time I pick this thing up I'm going to burn the ba-je-bus (sound it out...you can do it ;) out of myself! (See Fi mommy does really love you!) I started with my ribbon that matched the room and simply glued it around the unfinished bottom edge of the drum! Repeat on the inside and if you're feeling foggier add a layer of contrast ribbon too! (I really went the extra mile on this one!)

I ended up with this sweet little addition and it gave the light in the room a softer glow which was a relief. I had no idea how STARK that light was with out some sort of shade on it. Part of me wished I had gone ahead and covered the inside of the shade as well but the lazy crafter in me was already waaaaay past her patience level as it was. Pretty cute if I do say so myself...

Kids Storage for $7!

So of course reality set in and I realized I have NO TIME for blogging or for organizing most day's but since we have been blessed with a second little one on the way I've been having to make time to "organize". The reality is we have to get Dax moved from the nursery to his big boy room upstairs.

Friends and family have been so gracious in giving us most of the larger items like the toddler bed but what we were lacking was storage for toys. As any mother will tell you toys multiply faster than rabbits so we needed something. Dax's toys have already out-grown his cute "Garden Baskets of Fun!" in my other post three fold!

What I really needed something REALLY inexpensive and that could grow if needed. So I hit Pinterest and found this post that used buckets and simple zip-ties!

 I couldn't find any buckets but I did find these little beauties for a whopping $1.00 per basket at our local dollar store. I just couldn't beat that. I decided to start with 6 of them based on laying them out in the middle of the aisle to check for size.

I started by laying the base three baskets next to each other on their sides and lining up the interior slats so I could attach the zip-ties. I zip-tied at the top and at the bottom.

I then added the second layer of baskets. I over hung the lips on the baskets to hold them in place and lined up the interior slats both left to right and top to bottom. Then I zip-tied top layer to bottom layer and left basket to right basket. The top basket was a bit more challenging as I had to hold and zip-tie it into place.

This took an entirety of I'd say 10 mins at the most and I had a pretty cute way of storing my kiddo's things for much much much less than I had imagined. I may end up adding some "drawer liner" to the interiors of some of the so they will hold small items but for now they are just holding Dax's ever expanding stuffed animal collection. So copy, share, and enjoy!

First Christmas Ornament

I've been to a ton of craft fairs this year looking for the perfect 1st Christmas ornament for Dax, unfortunately it seems the art of crafting is something we only "Pin" not actually do. There were several places where they would write on a mass produced ornament but I was looking for something truly special. After alot of hours on the internet looking for the perfect ornament I realized I wanted a combination of several ideas I had seen and no one was really making them. (The reality is I'm a little picky.) So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

The ornament had to meet the following critera...

1. Must be plastic

I have a small child about to crawl that thinks a christmas tree is the coolest thing since sliced bread.

2. Must be easy to customize.

I didn't want to have to buy special pens or other things to make this work.

3. Must be plastic....seriously

I have three dogs who think we put up our tree just so they can take ornaments off at night to play with.

4. Must be something I could have customized similarly year after year.

I wanted something that I could make duplicates of year after year with new things in them. Like a collection. (Told you I was picky...)

I really liked this ornament on Etsy but really couldn't justify the cost if my dogs or child decided to ruin it. I was glass too so it was sure to get broken at some point over the years... Also what if I couldn't get this again the next year from the same person or in the same size...

Not willing to compromise I started looking on the internet and found something I thought would fit my bill.
I found this site with plastic fill-able ornaments. They came in alot of different shapes and sizes but I decided on the 3 1/4" star. I ordered a dozen so I could make them for years to come.

The come in half and simply pop together making it easy to add items to the interior. You could put anything in here as long as it fits!


I then went to my computer and created the scrolls for the interior. I picked my font and color and printed them on my home printer. I used Dax's birth stats, the first Christmas date, his personality traits, our wishes for him and what we love about him.  I cut them into thin strips and rolled them around a pencil. I pulled the center of the scroll out from the bottom, this makes the little spirals inside.

I added a little bit of fine white glitter on the inside and then added just a tiny bit of hot glue around the seal where you put the ornament together to keep it from breaking apart unexpectedly. I used some of the left over ribbon from our wedding for the bow and hot glued it on.Finally I used a little more ribbon for the loop and simply tied it in a knot.

This is how it came out. Pretty cute I think and I can keep doing it for years! I really wish I could fill my tree with them right now but its nice to know I have something of a tradition started for our family Christmas  Every year when we put up our tree Dax and I will create one of these together.  Filling them with joy, wishes, and things that represent him.

Traveling Dog Food Bowl

I've been wanting to blog about this for a while not only because its from a great client of mine but because it really works and has probably saved our poor dog Lucy from starving to death while she is at work with Justin! Over the years we have tried a lot of different traveling dog food bowls. Most of them are made to fold up and be packed away which poses two problems. One, Justin packs them away and forgets to get them out and has to carry a bag of dog food or a jug of water with him to fill them up and two since they are made of the very same material most of Lucy's dog toys are made out of once they are empty she sees them as a pretty fun chew toy...Not so good. 

Last year out of the blue I was contacted by John McMurphy of K-9 Enterprises. He wanted his website redone for his Traveling Canteen, a virtually leak proof, spill proof, indestructible, traveling, take anywhere dog & pet water and food bowl. As we spoke on the phone I was all about rebuilding the website but had to laugh to myself about the above described bowl. I had read so many similar descriptions about traveling dog food bowls only to find they were directly to the contrary. I explored the existing site and for the first time I thought he just might be right...


The Traveling Canteen is a portable all-in-one dog food and water bowl. Not only can you bring enough food and water for a get-away, but your pet can eat and drink from it as well. The dog food bowl holds .5 gallon of food with a screw-in sealed lid, which means that dirt and dust won't blow into your dogs food.
The water portion holds up to 2.5 gallons of water with it's own screw-in leak proof lid. Open the water side and leave the lid on the food if it's not time for your dog to eat yet. Openings are 7" wide to accomodate even the largest of breeds which was great for our Great Dane Boe! The unique design allows the water to also flow around the food bowl, keeping it cool and fresh. 

So problem One solved the food and the water stay in the dog food bowl so Justin doesn't have to carry bag of dog food or jugs of water but would this really stand up to problem two?

Lucy is notorious for chewing up ANYTHING!! We can't keep enough chew toys on hand for her. John assured me this particular dog food bowl could be run over by a truck and not break... Yea right I thought so I asked him to put it to the test for the website. So we shot the following video...

I thought for sure thought the lids would be shot once we finished but lo and behold they screwed right back on! I bought one that day. Justin carries it in his truck and fills it up once a week for Lucy. She has tried to chew the handle to no avail and this thing has taken a serious beating going to work on construction sites. We also take it camping with us! 

You can read more about it and buy one online at www.k-9enterprises.com! Trust me you'll never have to buy one again! The best part is they are Made in the USA and I am all about supporting small businesses!

Clorox Wipes Container holds Toilet Paper!

The dreaded day has finally come....its my first camping trip with a baby and I have to say I am completely terrified! So many things to figure out and since we haven't been since last summer I knew our camping tote was going to be a mess to say the least. I knew I was going to have to par down to accommodate all the new baby gear we would need to make it four days. We have one 45 Gal. tote that we haul the majority of our stuff in with smaller shoe boxes inside to keep things organized. The very first Shoe box I opened was a mess with toilet paper. Half used rolls, rolls covered in sand and dirt, and squished rolls. There had to be a better and smaller way to store these... The hunt was on!

Remember this guy from my last post that I actually gave up on. It looked strangely tempting. Would a roll of  t.p. fit in here? Well obviously or I wouldn't be writing this post right! So I pulled it out and took all the plastic bags and got a couple of the squished t.p. rolls out. At first I wanted to cut a long slit in the side to pull the t.p. through but quickly found while two rolls fit, it was so tight they would never actually roll. Then I remembered this post I saw about making your own baby wipes! I could take the cardboard out of the center and have it come through the top!

I started by removing the parts of the wipe container that were made to hold the wipes so you could get one at a time. It left me with what you can see at the left. I just used a pair of kitchen shears to do this. The plastic was fairly flexible so it was easy to trim out the parts.










Then I grabbed one of the squished rolls of toilet paper and worked the cardboard roll out of the center. This took me more time than expected and I found that the roll being squished actually helped matters! The tissue was also stuck to the cardboard roll so it came out like butter!. A tip here is to go slow and be gentle.

I gently squished the roll into the wipes container and repeated the process for the other roll. I do have to say I'm not sure this would work with the extra large rolls of toilet paper because they are so much bigger. We use the cheap stuff because it biodegrades quicker. I just put on the lid after this and admired my handy dandy work. Now the t.p. was squish protected, water resistant, and I wouldn't have half used rolls taking up all sorts of space! Our t.p.stash went from taking up a double shoe box to this small container!

Lazy Susan and Wipe Box Get New Life!

So life is getting a little hectic lately and I really haven't been able to accomplish any of the big Pinterest projects I would have liked to but I was able to get two little things done this week! 

Lazy Susan in the Refrigerator

I saw this post about something you had to buy but the reality is its just a lazy susan and I just happened to have one my sister gave me that I had yet to figure out a use for. The truth is every time I could have used it I forgot cause it was stuck in the back of a cabinet...so that would work great!!! My husband and I are condiment addicts. From the standard ketchup and mustard to the crazies hot sauces we've pretty much got everything so my condiments always overflow from here....

So in goes the lazy susan and corrals the rest of the stray condiments! Yea! I really liked that the lazy susan is clear so it doesn't take up much visual space and with no lip my hubby is more likely to put it back on there!

Wipe Box is Plastic Bag Storage

As a new mommy I have Wipes containers EVERYWHERE! I always feel bad about throwing them out but the reality is I only need one wipe container in the living room and one wipe container in the nursery. Of course turned to pinterest for an answer but didn't find anything that really fit my fancy...but I did see this post for my Clorox wipe bottle. I got everything ready and started rolling up the bags...but 20 mins later as I was still rolling bags I realized that this was probably a big fat waste of my time. Who was I kidding I would never ever do this again. As I got up from the living room floor I bumped the changing table and the answer literally hit me in the head! The empty wipes container! OF COURSE! I gathered up the empty one I had and simply stuffed all the bags into it. Now if only I could get back the 20 mins of my life I spent trying to roll up plastic bags just so... 

Its not all pretty yet but I'm sure I'll hit it with some plastic bond spray paint at some point. Maybe that will be my first update post! But for now it opened up the entire bottom self in my pantry...enough that I could now get my back up stock of formula and my new mixer courtesy of my Auntie Tina in there! YEA! 


YIKES...looking at this picture my cabinet could use a fresh coat of paint and maybe some pretty contact paper. And yes I couldn't just get rid of my Clorox wipes container... I just shoved the plastic bags in there like i did in the wipe container. Because the reality is time with my son is more important than rolling up plastic bags. 

Laundry Organization Rack

So yesterday I got to redo my laundry room so of course today when I wanted to use it I came into our master bedroom to find this.... UGH..

I really wanted to try this project and remembered my mom and dad had some of that shelving. We used it in our bedroom as kids because it allowed us to rearrange often without much hassle. But I sadly realized I couldn't do this either because my laundry basket collection looks like this... YIKES!!! At $7 a piece I couldn't afford to replace these either! 

Oh but saving grace! I did happen to have 6 empty totes hanging out in the basement! WOOHOO! These would work better anyway cause I only do laundry every two weeks so I have bigger loads! So I picked up the brackets from my mom's grabbed some clear note card protectors from Basically Business and gathered up the totes!

I started by making some cute little signs on my computer and putting them inside the note card protectors. 

Then I gathered supplies and started hanging brackets!

Use an automatic pencil to mark deep  set spaces!

Don't forget to use mollies! Don't want them to fall!

I hung my bins and added my little signs and finally had a pretty cute final project! Now if I can only get my husband to use it... Anyone have any tips for that???