Shabby Chic Jewelry-holder tutorial

 This is such an easy and thrifty solution to hang your jewelry from. If you're like me, you want to be able to see them so you can easily choose which piece you want to wear. And like most people, I had more wall space than I  counter space, so this was a great solution for me!

I found an old picture frame at the thrift store (the one with the velvet in-lay). This isn't the one, but I forgot to take a "before" picture--and this one's pretty close to what it looked like. I paid $1.00 for it.

 

 Next, I bought a subtle off-white paint sample at Home Depot. It was an "oops", so I paid $.50 for it.
I painted the whole thing a few times--taking special care to liberally coat the velvet. As soon as all coats were dry, I lightly sanded the edges and detail to give it an aged look. Then I drilled 5 evenly spaced holes in the velvet part.

 Also at Home Depot, I bought the cheapest wooden knobs I could find and painted them.

 This is what they looked like scuffed and installed. Cute, aren't they?

 Then, I stretched a piece of fabric (cut 1" bigger on all sides) over Dollar Store foam core using hot glue on the back.

 I decided at the last minute to add more hooks on the bottom.

 Here's the finished product. I also made one to hold my hair accessories by gluing vertical pieces of ribbon on it.

That's it! I have been absolutely loving it! Not only is it very functional and cleared up quite a bit of space for me, but it's such a fun way to add pops of color to a drab wall!

Scrap Paper Clock Tutorial

I started with my color inspiration. These are the colors of my kitchen...

 So I found some scrapbook paper in my stash that coordinated.

 I tore them into random pieces...

 and distressed the edges with stamps.

I bought this at the thrift store for $2.

In it's former life, it was a lazy susan that used to reside in the middle of someone's kitchen table.

I cleaned it, painted it, and removed the outside ring. I also drilled a hole in the center.

Using Mod Podge, I glued each piece down individually (paying close attention to smooth out bubbles). No rhyme or reason.

Once my clock was covered, I lightly sealed the whole thing in Mod Podge.

 I glued the outer ring back on. If you don't have one, I bet you could cut one out of posterboard and decopage that on, too.

I bought these numbers, painted them black, then lightly sanded the edges.

Then I glued them down starting with 12 and 6, then did 9 and 3.

I used these pencils to help me position them, then I eyeballed the rest. 

 

Ready for the clock gears!

 This is what they look like. I paid about $6.00 for this gear set.

It's easy to put together (they come with instructions).

There you have it--my customized clock!

 I set it on an easel. I just love checking the time now!

Single Serving (or extra batter) Cupcake

Smart tip-

*Do you ever find that when you're making cupcakes, you sometimes have enough batter left over for another cupcake or two...or would you like to make an individual serving?

Pull out a 1/2 cup metal measuring cup and bake it right in there!

Work's great!

You can also do this to make single servings!

Single Serving Cake Mix Recipe

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Single-Serving-Cake

• 1/2 cup Betty Crocker cake mix
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tsp oil

Bake at 350 in two 1/2 cup measuring cups for about 10-15 minutes. Cake is done when it bouces back when lightly touched. Makes two cupcakes.

How to Organize Children's Bookshelves

This was one of our bookshelves just a couple weeks ago. I had the other one on a different wall, but only took this pic, so picture this times two. That was the amount of books that lived in my 3 boys' room. Both were packed to the brim and we had no sense of organization whatsoever. I can't tell you how many times I had straightened the books up just to have them look like this again within days.

So, I was helping out in one of my son's classrooms and I couldn't help but notice how nice and organized her bookshelves were! She had a bunch of labeled bins and they looked so nice! I went right home and started looking up bookshelf organization ideas. It made so much sense!

The key is to make it easier to keep it clean than to mess it up. It's so nice and easy for kids to pull out a bin, flip through until they find the book they'd like, take it, then push the bin back in it's place. It's much better than looking at the spine of the book (kids like to see the fronts, anyway!), then pulling out a whole slew of them until they've decided on the perfect book, leaving a pile of un-wanted books on the floor. Why hadn't I thought of this before??? I've been a mom for 10 years. I've been battling with organizing my kid's bookshelves nearly evey day of those 10 years! What a waste of time; it kills me to know how much easier it could've been for me!

Let me introduce you to our new, organized shelves. I know you're thinking- Where are all the books? There's no way you fit what was crammed in the picture above (times 2) in these shelves. But it's TRUE! I DID! I only threw away a few books that had totally fallen apart and were missing pages. It's amazing how much extra SPACE we have on the shelves now!

Below is a picture I took AFTER a full day of the kids pulling out and reading books. Hardly a mess- and it only took seconds to put back.

I decided to test this new system out and see how well we could keep it up...and here we are two weeks later with perfectly organized bookshelves still!

 Since I knew it was something we could maintain, I decided to make labels for each category. I was out of my laminating sheets, so I used packing tape.

Here they are after labels-

Looks better with the labels, doesn't it?

I categorized them as-

Chapter Books, Early Reader Books, Rhythm & Rhyme books, Abc books, Bedtime Stories, Religious books, Non-fiction, Scriptures, Holiday books, Animal books, Little Golden books, Disney, Seuss, Muppets, and misc. Some of the labels were placed on the edge of the shelf itself.

 I used these wash basins from the dollar store-

 And shoe boxes-

 I found this bin for the books that didn't fit on the shelves-

 Ah, organization! :)

 I was having so much fun, I decided to put new labels on some of our toy bins.

Double yay for a system that finally works for us! I'm so happy, I could just...I don't know...go organize something else!

Now, I'm off to the girl's bookshelves!

Repurpose baby blankets



I made myself a blankie. Yep, this one's mine. All my kids have their own "snuggle" blankies. I thought it was about time I made one for me! 

It's extra special to me because I made it out of my youngest daughter's crib bedding. I didn't feel the need to keep all that bulky bedding around, but it was still sentimental to me. So I reluctantly cut it allllll up.

I couldn't find a picture of her bedding, so I found this one, which is pretty close.

I got this image from-
http://www.distinctivenurseries.com/Lola-by-Maddie-Boo--4-Piece-Crib-Collection_p_3357.html



 I actually bought her set at Target about 4 years ago. Does anyone remember the cute Lola dots and stripes collection? Loved it.

Still do. :)

I cut it into 10" squares, arranged and sewed them together, backed it with pink Soft & Comfy Bubble Velour (A.K.A. Minky), and tied it with white string. I didn't even use batting. It really didn't need it (I live in a very warm climate, though. If you DO want to add batting for warmth, I suggest Warm & White Cotton).

NOW, you should go & dig up those old blankets and get workin'! :)

Felt & Fabric Flowers with Feathers Wreath in a Frame

Tongue twister!

No, that's not why I put an F on my wreath...

just coincidental. Haha! ;) Our last name is Foster.

Here's a little tutorial I've put together for ya. Complete with instructions/links on how to make each flower on this baby.

This is the finished product.

This is what it looked like before I decided to add a little to it. I thought it needed more presence.

I've been told I can't leave well enough alone. Oh well!

 THIS is what it looked like yesterday when I got it.

I intercepted it as it was destined for the thrift store.

I couldn't wait to transform it!

 I peeled off it's pink tinsel layers and found the wreath to be like new!

I loved that one part was thicker than the rest, too! Perfect place to put the flowers.

 I wrapped it in 2" wide black satin ribbon,

 gathered my fabric/felt/ribbon/feather scraps,

 and made these flowers.

The tutorials for these are

HERE (Big Ruffled Silver one),

HERE (Two-toned Red & Black ones),

HERE (Black Petal one on far left)

HERE (Small Rolled Rosettes), and

HERE (Fluffy, Loopy Felt ones).

 I hot glued them right on the ribbon.

 Here are all the flowers on it.

 Then I added the feathers.

 This was originally the finished product.

By the way,

HERE's a tutorial on how to turn your regular, short, plain dollar store wreath hanger into this ribbon hanger.

But then I decided I wanted to add an "F" for Foster.

So, I (very sloppily) cut it out of some pre-used foam core.

 The pics uploaded sideways. Oh well.

I wrapped it in torn fabric strips,

 then added a flower and some feathers.

 I glued the F onto the wreath, and hot-glued the wreath onto an empty picture frame.

 And now it hangs on my door.

:)

Rain gutter shelves = THREAD storage...

I needed a place to store all my thread, but I didn't have the surface space for one of those fancy wooden holders. However, I had this narrow, empty wall space to the left of my window that was doing nothing. I got this idea after a couple of my friends shared a LINK with me to the tutorial for these SUPER EASY rain-gutter shelves.

I keep the ones I use most frequently on the bottom. The
middle shelf is for the frequently-used colors, and the top
is my sparcely-used and over-flow storage.

They are the PERFECT size for holding my thread! Originally, when I saw the pictures my friends shared, I thought they looked more complicated than I wanted to undertake for my little "sewing-room organization" project. But since I live minutes away from the hardware store, I thought I'd check it out.

Complicated? Nope, I was SO WRONG! These were so FAST & EASY! I had these home & on my walls within an hour of purchasing what I needed.

I think it looks pretty to arrange them in color order. I've
got the cool colors on the left side, and the warm colors
on the right.
I know, I know, I'm so OCD about some things!

Not only are they useful, they also add a touch of color to my room! Cute!

This probably wouldn't work very well if you're trying to store SPOOLS of thread. These shelves are deep enough to hide the bottom-third of a cone, so your spools would be completely hidden.

Which do you use?

I recently switched to cones. I used to think they were only for sergers.

Yes, I DO use them in my serger, but then I discovered this little thingy-

Maybe I'm oblivious, but I'll admitt that I didn't even know this little cone thread holder even existed until I was working at JoAnn's. Now, I'm totally HOOKED. Cone thread is generally about the same cost (sometimes even less) than a spool of thread, but you get much, MUCH more for your money.

And it works great with your sewing machine!

How do you store your thread? I'm always interested in cool new storage ideas that can help me get more organized! Heaven knows, I need it!