Cute (and easy) DIY garland

My sister (Kitten Sorceress) is adorable. She is super crafty and creates the BEST things. Always.

Since I’ve been busy/overwhelmed/barelymakingit with the start up of the new school year (let me tell you- 6^th graders are exhausting. Every. Day. The energy- where does it come from??), I am posting yet another adorable DIY project that KS worked on recently.

Materials:

-Old t-shirts in whatever colors you choose

-Scissors

-Hot glue

-Twine/yarn/some type of string

-clothes pins

 

1. Cut your t-shirts into long, thin strips.

Cut

2. Roll each strip, using hot glue to secure the end of the strip to the BACK of the flower? Dot? The thing.

Roll.

Roll some more.

Keep rolling.

Glue.

3. Using a clothes pin, secure the THINGS to your piece of twine/yarn/whatever. Make sure they’re spaced apart evenly!

Pin.

4. Hang it up and give yourself a pat on the back for being so darn cute.

Love it.

 

I cannot wait to make a fall garland- I already have the old t-shirts set aside in a dusty red, burnt orange (seriously though- who makes a t-shirt in burnt orange?), and mustard yellow. It is going to be fabulous.

Happy week to you all! Cross your fingers I’ll have time to complete one of the 10 projects I have on my to-do list. How many days until summer??

Easy DIY Shelves

I hate bank walls. They bother me immensely. They’re so lonely and bare and sad. But also kinda exciting. There’s so much that you can do to an empty wall. For example:

–Display books

–Chalkboard wall

–Photo wall 

I found this cool pottery set below at a garage sale for $8 and knew I wanted to display it somewhere in our house.

Set of 4 bowls and plates= $8 at garage sale. We found the coffee mugs in my grandmother’s basement.

Unfortunately, shelves are expensive. And I hate how many of them look. So, we decided to create our own. Here’s how:

Materials:

-2 long pieces of wood (cut to whatever length you choose)

-Shelf brackets

-Screws

-Power drill

-Level

Directions:

Figure out where you want your shelves to go on the wall (keep in mind you need to find studs for this to really work. Please note: the video I attached for finding studs has the following comment posted: “Also, the guy in this video is very sexy.” You’ve been warned). Mark with a pencil the exact location of the studs and where your brackets will go. Using your drill, attach the brackets to the wood. Finally, drill screws into the remaining bracket holes, attaching the shelf to the wall.

*Sorry I do not have pictures for this process- I didn’t know when we did these 2 years ago that I’d have this blog. Rats.

Total cost to make: about $18

Accessory breakdown: Both pictures, wine bottle, sifter, towel- gifts from friends and family; old cheese grater- $0.50 (will be used in a project, of course); old books, picture frame, mason jar, dried hydrangea- found around our house. Total cost of accessories (including pottery): $8.50. Amen.

So how much will it cost you to build similar shelves?

-2 pieces of wood: $6

-Brackets: $12 (includes approximate cost of screws used)

Total cost: $18

I can handle that.

Any other ideas for blank walls? Do share. 

Also, puppies:

Love.

 

Time Savers Update

We are champions. We mastered the cleaning list I posted about last week. And by that, I mean we followed the schedule for the 5 days since I decided to do it. But still. Anyway, every day (okay, except for Friday, of course) we did our daily chores so that we didn’t have to spend 8 trillion hours this weekend cleaning. It actually worked. I just had to make sure I didn’t sit down when I came home. Or start snacking. I went right to the chore. Miracles do happen, y’all.

AND, cooking everything on Sunday was awesome. I literally wondered what I would do one evening around 7. Everything was clean. We had eaten. Could I actually watch 3 hours of The Office? (The answer is yes, I could and did and will).

This week, we made broccoli and white bean soup as well as a caprese quinoa bake. So. Good.

Caprese Quinoa Bake. Oh my.

We also made another meal for tonight and leftovers whenever (because why not?). Sr. calls this “roasted roots.” Bet you can’t guess what’s in this dish….Heads up: it’s super easy to prepare. And quite tasty.

Roasted Roots

Ingredients:

-Baby potatoes. Lots of ’em.

-About 10 Radishes (halved)

-2 beets- 1 orange, 1 red, cut into large chunks

-1 rutebega- cut into large chunks

-1 turnip- cut into large chunks

-olive oil

-salt

-pepper

(Suggestion: Add a sweet potato! We didn’t have any :-()

Mix all ingredients and roast in 350 degree oven for about an hour. Enjoy!

What are your favorite weeknight dishes? 

Folding Chair Makeover

While looking for houses to buy a few years ago, Señor and I fell in love with our current home. It was a foreclosure that a group of house flippers bought, gutted, and remodeled. I love everything about the house (the yard definitely needs some work though. Seriously). One of my favorite parts is the sunroom. During the summer, it’s perfect for entertaining friends. When the weather changes and fall sneaks up on us, I love to sit on the porch with some tea and the windows open. It’s just perfect.

Here’s the thing: we don’t have any seating. Well, we have a futon, but not everyone wants to cuddle on that disgusting old thing. So, I recently added “seating for sunroom” to my garage sale list. Surprisingly, I found some chairs within a week. For all 3 chairs in their glorious splendor, we paid $7 (total). Maybe a little overpriced, but I wanted them reaaaal baaayyud.

$7 total at a garage sale

They’re ugly. It’s true. All goldish and weird yellow. It’s too much. But not to worry. This type of chair is ridiculously easy to fix up. I found this idea on- imagine this- Pinterest. Go figure!

Here’s what we did:

1. First, we removed the screws in the back

Tools. Gotta have ’em.

Remove the screws. Keep them in a safe place until you’re ready to put everything back together.

Ugh. So. Ugly.

2. We Señor spray painted every metal part of the chair

We chose an oil-rubbed bronze spray paint by Rust-Oleum.

3. While the chairs dried overnight, we wrapped this fresh, cute fabric around the seat and back padding of the chair. You can find scrap fabrics at garage sales or head to a fabric store (which is what I did because I was too lazy to wait. This fabric cost me $6). Using a heavy-duty staple gun, staple the fabric to padding.

Make sure to pull it tight! Also, again with the weird hands. Where did they come from??

Staple guns are your friend.

Dainty.

4. Once the chairs have dried, screw the paddings back onto the chair.

So much better

Yep.

If you’re really cool, you could also:

• Stencil a design on the metal part of the chair
• Use a vinyl tablecloth as fabric to make the chairs weatherproof
• Use different, coordinating fabrics and paint colors

The total cost for the chairs runs as follows:

Chairs: $7

Fabric: $6

Spray Paint: $10

Total cost: $23 or $7.67 per chair (Used a calculator this time, thankyaverymuch). Not bad for some additional seating for our jam* sessions.

*Our good friends are teaching us guitar. So when I say *jam,* I really mean that I clumsily “follow” along and occasionally hit the G-chord. It ain’t pretty.

Tongues.

Time Savers

The day of mourning is upon us: Today is officially the last day of summer for Sr. and me.

“Whaaat?!?! How can this be?” you ask. Great question. I have no idea. I am heartbroken.

Not really. But it is a little sad. I will miss the puppies immensely and will have to let go of my addiction to 1) Netflix, 2) Sleeping until 8 am (ok, 10), and, of course, 3) Thursday garage sales and endless projects.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still do all these things. But the weekend will become my happy thought.

This year, however, we’re changing a few of our routines to make week nights equally happy. That will require a little flexibility and a *gasp* a little work on the weekend. But we got this. Here’s what we’re changing in our lives so that we’re not working for the weekend.

1. Cooking and freezing meals for the week on Sunday

I love to cook, however I detest cleaning up afterward. Ahhh. Needless to say, after coming home from my exhilarating exhausting job, I don’t always feel like cooking. But we gotta eat and a girl can only eat so much takeout/cereal. Last year, we would cook about 3 times a week, eating leftovers or with family members (and occasionally eating out) on the other nights. That means we spent at least 3 of our week nights preparing meals and cleaning up the kitchen after the tornado we finished cooking. Thankfully, I have a very helpful husband who enjoys to cook with me. But we would rather spend our evenings with the puppies. Or watching The Office. Or anything other than cleaning up. So, we devised a plan. We’re now preparing all of our weeknight meals on Sunday evening to either refrigerate or freeze for the rest of the week. Here’s how much time we’ll save:

Last year’s meal prep time:

1 dinner: Usually 30 minutes prep, 20 minutes clean up, plus the time is takes to eat. One night, Sr. seriously said to me after dinner: “Now that that’s out of the way…” Yeah. And I totally got him. Don’t judge.

So we’re looking at at least 50 minutes for one night. Multiply that times 3 and we end up with almost 3 hours (Hey, Jack: I don’t teach Math) spent during the week. This may not seem like much (because it’s not) but it’s more about the looming “Now I have to cook dinner and wash dishes and compost and fill the Brita and blah blah blah” that hangs over me every evening when I get home. I hate that feeling. Again- love to cook, but really, let’s be honest: I just love to eat. I need a personal chef.

Anyway, this week we made the following to refrigerate or freeze:

Mushroom, onion, cannellini, and quinoa salad (inspired from this recipe). We keep the quinoa in the fridge and then serve it on a bed of spring mix. Hahaha. Bed of spring mix. Sounds fancy, really it’s just lazy #boxedsalad #amiright

Delicious

Whole wheat and spinach pasta with mushrooms and broccoli and a cauliflower sauce (inspired from this recipe)

It took us 1.5 hours to completely make and clean up from these meals. Now, I can come home and not have to worry about cooking. Such a relief. Seriously. Again, don’t judge.

We’ve also started making our own whole wheat bread. I got the recipe from this wonderful site, but modified it using a commenter’s suggestions for wheat bread (the original bread calls for white flour- which I love- but my hippy hips don’t).

Whole Wheat Homemade Bread

2 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour

2 cups water

1 3/4 t. salt

1/2 t. yeast (it really doesn’t matter what type- if you get the “Active” kind, it mentions mixing with warm water and what not- disregard this. Jut mix the yeast right on in!)

Add flour, salt, and yeast to a large bowl and mix until combined. Add in water. Mix until it looks rather disgusting and there’s no more extra flour left on the bowl. Completely cover with plastic wrap and store on your counter for 12-18 hours (overnight is great!).

Here’s what your bread will look like after 12-18 hours of rising.

When you’re ready to cook, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Once preheated, place your cast iron pot in the oven for 30 minutes to heat up. While the pot is heating up, pour your bread mixture (which has now significantly risen) onto a well floured surface. With flour on your hands, shape the bread mixture as pictured below. Once your pot is preheated, place the bread into the pot- do NOT grease the pot. It will not stick. Promise. Cook the bread for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Enjoy. It’s delicious.

Gross. But sooo good when cooked. Sr. ate some of it raw. That really was gross.

Remember! Don’t grease your pot! It doesn’t need any oil/spray/butter.

So. Amazing.

Yep. And it cost less than $1 to make and lasts for a week.

2. Meal planning/grocery shopping

Since we’ve been married, Sr. and I have planned our meals and done ALL of our grocery shopping on Sundays. I kinda HATE going to the grocery store (really, spending money), so we try and buy everything we’ll need on that one trip per week. It takes a few minutes to plan out the meals, but it’s not too bad. I made a super long list of meal ideas a while back and I always use my Pinterest “Main Dish” board for inspiration. The excellent thing about doing all the meal planning and shopping in one day? We save money. We don’t buy extra things. Awesome.

3. Preparing puppy breakfasts the night before

This saves maybe 1 minute, but whatever. If you’re like us, you need EVERY DANG MINUTE in the morning to make it to work on time. We saved old salad dressing jars and use them as puppy food “measuring cups.” Each night at puppy dinner time, Sr. fills up the jars (one for Finley and one for Riley) so that they’re ready to be poured into bowls the next morning. This saves a sleepy Sr. from having to measure it out of the dog food containers each morning when time is like a gem- super precious.

4. Cleaning schedule

I tried this last year and failed. Lame. It’s going to work through this year because it just is. Because we’re going to be amazing. Duh. So we’ve designated certain days for certain chores. Here’s the list we currently have agreed upon:

Every day before hitting the sack: All dishes washed and away, sweep, straighten rooms

Monday: Bathrooms

Tuesday: Dust

Wednesday: Mop floors, vacuum

Thursday: Clothes laundry

Friday: Linens laundry

Saturday: Yard work and swing day*

Sunday: Food prep for the week, mail organizer 

*Swing day chores alternate each week of the month. I got the idea from swing days from this awesome cleaning post. Here’s what our swing days will look like:

1st week: Wipe out pantry, fridge, and freezer

2nd week: Clean inside windows

3rd week: Clean baseboards

4th week: Sweep and de-spiderweb (yep. that’s a word) porches (Ummm…that may be a husband job….)

What do you do during the work week to save time? Seriously- gimme some ideas!