Mini Journals

So I saw this idea on one of my favorite blogs these days, A Beautiful Mess, and I thought it could be a nice little gift for those wonderful girls you read about last week.

They are super easy to put together and you can put them in your purse as little "to-do" jourals.  You could also use one for prayer requests, or short lists.  Jenn, the girl that lives with us, writes down quotes people say or other things she wants to remember.

Instead of using magazines for these, I used pictures from a vintage looking California book that I picked up at a garage sale.  It is full of old pictures of Cali.  Then I added stickers for their initials. The spines are covered with washi tape.

Makes for a fun quick project.  ;)

(I'll get these to you soon, Kristin and Amber!)

DIY: Refrigerator Word Magnets

Almost a year ago now, I'm guessing, I pondered over the idea of joining the Etsy world.  I came up with a few things I might sell, some better than others.  One of the not so good ideas was making and selling refrigerator word magnets.  I actually followed through on making these.  I made a TON.  And then I decided not to sell them, so they are still covering our fridge.

I just think these are so fun!  People come up with random, funny sentences or phrases.  So I thought I would give a simple DIY on the ol' blog today.

First I bought magnet sheets at Office Max.

Avery Ink Jet magnet paper to be exact.

Then I got out some Mod Podge...

and some sponge on a stick thingy's...

and then I cut out a ton of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs from magazines that had fun fonts or crazy words and I mod podged them onto the magnet paper with the sponge on a stick.

The most tedious part comes after the mod podge dries...cutting out each individual word!

As I cut out the words I separated them into little baggies by type of word such as, adjectives, nouns, verbs, conjunctions...etc.  You don't need to do this if you're just going to keep them yourself.  Unless you want to know how many you have of each type of word.

Don't forget to cut out lots of a's, and's, the's, in's, for's, to's, you know...those kinds of words that you use a lot.

That's it!  Pretty simple.  It just takes a long time.

Have fun making crazy sentences!

DIY: Olive Green Drawers

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I love interior design.  And if you know me persoanlly you probably know that I love to fix up old furniture! 

Well, the other day at work, my wonderful boss, Rita, brought in an old little thing of drawers.  It almost looked like it belonged on top of a desk.  She was going to put it on the volunteer table which is basically a giveaway table, but first she asked me if I wanted it.  I almost passed it up but then I gave it a closer look.  I loved the rounded edges on the drawers and the old handles and it had a retro 50's feel.  So I took a chance..."on an unknown kid."  (Excuse me, random movie quote.)

Of course I had to blog about the process.  ;)

Not all the pics are great...so bare with me.

For some reason not all my before pictures downloaded, but here is a close up of what it looked like before:

Of course, I sanded it down first.

These drawers used to hold silver, so they had this weird fake felt inside.  I tore out the silver holders...

.

...and scraped out the fake felt.  This was the longest part of the whole process.  And I should have been wearing a face mask.  It came off like fine powder.

The mix of the powder with the wood chips was not the nicest thing to inhale.

I bought some nice already mixed olive green paint from Lowe's.

I taped up the handles because they were super hard to remove.

And I lined the drawers with some laminate paper also found at Lowe's.

Not a perfect paint job, but I don't think anyone will notice.

I stuck the drawers back in...

and Voila!  All done!

Here it is in my room.  ;)  A new pedestal for Woody!

DIY: Fabric Garland Chandelier

The other day at work, my friend, Jessica, directed me too a wonderful new blog called A Beautiful Mess.  If you have never checked it out, go there right now!  I absolutely love everything about it.  Elsie, the writer of this fantastic blog, has a plethora of fun DIY projects including the one below.  (The pic is from her site.)

Pretty much ever since I put up the chinese lantern in my room, I have been dissatisfied with it.  I didn't love the shape or the look and for the last year or so I haven't even had a light bulb in it.  So when I saw the fabric chandelier on Elsie's blog, I knew it would be the perfect fit.

So this past weekend I decided to do it.  What I liked about this project in particular was that all the materials were things I already had around the house.  It's made out of an old fashioned cookie cooling rack (which we happened to have), some white fabric and lace, and a sewing needle and thread.  :)

Here is the finished product in my room.

After it's complete you stick some white fairy lights through the rack and hang with an extension cord.

Just the right amount of whimsy for my room!