The Money Pit

Dyed Coffee Filter Wreath

2012-02-17T23:30:00.000-08:00

Coffee filter wreaths have been circulating around Pinterest for a while now, but I didn't want a white wreath, a little too bridal for my taste. So I thought I would mix it up (just in time for St. Patty's day and Easter) by dying mine minty green!

I found this pack of 700 coffee filters at Costco for less than $4 (and I only about 1/3 of the package for this project)
Take approximately 300 filters and placed them in a bowl in order to soak them in water tinted with green food color

I also added about 1/2 a cup of vinegar to the water as a dye fixer

Let them soak until they are as dark as you like.

Also note: Because I didn't fluff them apart, the ones in the center of the stack were much lighter since the liquid didn't penetrate as well. I liked the different shades of green. If you want them all the exact same color, you need to make sure you separate the filters before dying them.

Drain the filters in a colander

Seperate them and allow them to dry. At this point many of the filters may stuck together in small stacks of 3-4. If you want them to dry faster you can take the time to peel them apart one by one, or let them dry a little and they will peel apart much more easily. The less filters per stack, the faster they will dry.

To form the wreath, I picked up a piece of plumbing pipe insulation at home depot for $1.97 (much cheaper than buying a wreath form)

Just cut it to length and tape it into a circle.

To make the ruffles, first fold the filters into quarters.

Twist the folded corner and fluff the little floret.

Using a hot glue gun add the filters to the wreath form.

Stuff them in pretty close together, to give you the fullest effect

Continue all the way around the wreath.

If you have any extra filters at the end, you can go back and fill in any areas that may show a gap or that don't seem very full.

To hang the wreath I used a small segment of ribbon, attached with two straight pins. Add a drop hot glue to the pins so they don't pull out.

And there you have it!

I love how it turned out, and I LOVE the fact it was only $4!

Organizing My Sewing Studio & Fabric Stash

2012-02-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

I am still working on my sewing room. It is a big project..

no it is HUGE.

I have a lot of junk in that room that needs sorting, organizing and pruning. The kids can barely walk in there:

Remember how I was going to paint that big IKEA Expedit system white and fill it with my stuff? Well... that didn't work out. After I lived with it for a while I hated the white.

So I still had the big.blank.wall. yearning for some color and a garage full of white MDF.

After hemming and hawing over the adjoining master bedroom color

I settled on Bleeker Beige by Benjamin Moore:

I was originally going to paint the entire room, but really liked how painting only two walls accentuated the weird high ceilings and strange little interior window.

I then decided to paint the entire Expedit system the same color and set it up in that open space:

I spent 8 (YES EIGHT) hours folding all my fabric using this technique that I found on Pinterest. It was great to get my fabric out of the plastic bins and where I could see it. I had forgotten about a lot of half finished projects that had been hidden away for years.

I really liked how the shelving unit receded into the wall and that the color fabric is what you focus on. I am glad I didn't leave it white.

On top of the shelf I added a bunch of my antique sewing tchoskies.

And at the ceiling hangs my $1.05 chandelier.

I am LOVING it.

Now that I have organized all my sewing stuff, the built ins on the other side of the room are much more open. But they are screaming for a coat of paint. Now that I have seen how nice the other unit looks and how the actual items on the shelves are the focus and not the shelves themselves I am more convinced then ever that they need a paint job.

And I thought folding that fabric was a lot of work!

Chocolate Coated Strawberries for $5

2012-02-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

It is Valentine's Day, which means we are being inundated by advertisements with various ways of spending money to prove your love for your sweetheart.
Well.. that doesn't work on me. Because I am cheap. SUPER CHEAP. One hubs favorite V-day treats is chocolate dipped strawberries.. ..but there is NO WAY I am shelling out $30 for a dozen chocolate dipped strawberries! No way.
Especially when they are super easy to make (seriously, less than 10 minutes) and cost about $5 for the exact same thing. You don't think you can get a dozen professionally looking chocolate dipped strawberries for $5? I beg to differ. Plus, if you use my method, you have ZERO clean up. YES. ZERO.
What do you need? Strawberries (Fresh & Easy: $2) Baker's Dipping Chocolate (Target: $3.19) Zip-lock bags Waxed Paper
This is what you get:How do you do it?
Wash and dry the berries. (I place them on a plate on a paper towel in a single layer.) It helps to chill them in the fridge before dipping since the cold berry helps the chocolate stick and gives you a thicker layer. Microwave the dipping chocolate (right in the container) until it is creamy, mixing every 30 seconds. Dip the chilled berries into the chocolate (let the excess drip back into the container.) Once they are done dripping heavily, twirl them around before placing them on waxed paper to harden.
When you have dipped them all, put the remaining (still liquid) chocolate into a ziploc bag and cut a teenie-tiny triangle off the corner of the bag. Drizzle the chocolate out of the hole and back and forth over the chocolate coated part of the berry.
When they have hardened (less than 5 minutes) remove the berries onto your plate (or whatever you will be presenting the berries on)
Throw away the waxed paper (after peeling off and eating the extra chocolate of course) as well as the zip-lock bag and chocolate container. The only dirty dish you should be left with is the spoon you used to stir the melting chocolate.
Total cost: $5.19
I made a dozen and probably had enough chocolate to do a few more. These were really large berries.

Spring is here!

2012-02-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

It has been an unseasonably warm and dry summer here in the Bay area this year, so the flowers are already staring to bloom and the trees are budding out. I thought this would be a great opportunity to try out my new camera that I got as an (early) Valentine's day gift.

I walked around the yard and found flowers I didn't know we had:

A bunch of the shrubs have already put out fruit:

I then walked over to the mall and took some shots of the wildlife:

The mall was fun because there were a bunch of waterfalls which gave me a chance to mess around with my shutter speeds:

To catch the duck taking off I set my shutter to 1/200s

To show the water flow (over the same rocks as above) I lengthened the exposure to 1/20

Here is another example (Remember to increase the aperture to make up for loss of light with a shorter shutter speed):

I am slowly learning to use my camera, and it is amazing all the things you see when you looking through a viewfinder.

I know this blog is really more about my home improvement life, so I may start a new photo blog elsewhere, especially since I am considering a 365 project (a photo per day for a year) but for the time being, I thought I would throw a few photos on here.
Bear with me.

Pinterest Recipe Round Up

2012-02-06T23:06:00.000-08:00

I have been using Pinterest a lot lately in order to pick recipes. I posted a few of them here, here and here. But that is only the tip of iceberg. I thought today I would post a few more that I have tried along with my opinion of them.

These are actual pictures of the recipes that *I* made. The links will take you to my pinterest pins and from there you can find the entire recipe.

Super Easy Cinnamon Rolls: And they really ARE super easy. This is my favorite food pin on Pinterest thus far.

Girl Scout Samoa Bars: A great alternative to the Samoa cookies I made previously (pre Pinterest)

Buttermilk Carmel Sauce: This was really good, and it made a TON. I was able to fill my old maple syrup jar with it. One thing that wasn't noted in the recipe, but that happened to mine, was that it tended to solidify when I stored it in the fridge. I have to microwave it to pour it but the flavor is great

Nantucket Cranberry Pie: Originally from the Pioneer Woman. The recipe called for fresh cranberries and I used frozen. They floated to the top of the "pie" and it wasn't nearly as pretty as Ree's, but it tasted good.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread: This was a great recipe. Mixed it in the bread machine and baked it in the oven (the photo is only the dough. It baked up to a nice golden brown) I liked that it had really common ingredients that I always have lying around.

Buttermilk Pie: This is from Paula Deen and so you know it must be fabulous. I actually decreased the sugar to 1 cup and it was plenty sweet. A great way to use up buttermilk

Apple Cranberry Pie with Streusel Crust: This was good. Too tart for the kids, but a nice alternative to apple pie. I was able to use up leftover cranberry sauce which was a plus

Hasselback Potatoes: These were only okay. The edges were crisp while the centers were flavorless and mushy. The kids liked them, but I wasn't a fan.

Icing worthy sugar cookies: These were highly rated and so I gave them a shot. They weren't super sweet which made them perfect for icing. Overall they were good, I would make them again.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcake Cake: I made this for E's birthday party. Not really a recipe, but it was Pinterest inspired.

They went along with these cupcakes that were baked directly in ice cream cones (just make cupcakes in muffin tins without wrappers and stick a cone upside down in the batter):

Overall, I would say about 80% of the recipes I have tried thus far have been at least okay. I have only had a few total failures, which is better than my track record for google.

$20 Weekly Budget: Week 4 Results

2012-02-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

The last full week of living on $20 per week and I couldn't be much more excited.

I started this week with only $13.89

Sunday: $4.89 at Home Depot for wood stain to use on my stair makeover project

Monday: My Lowe's card credit card statement came in the mail and it turns out I had a $30 credit! Since I already had used the stain I got at Home Depot, I bought the exact same kind at Lowe's and returned it to Home Depot for +$4.89! I also picked up some spray paint and door hardware at Lowe's with my store credit.

Tuesday: $4.59 at Costco for 2 Gallons of Milk

Wednesday: $4.83 at the Farmer's Market

1lb. bulk popping corn $0.86

Quart Buttermilk $1.99

4 Apples: $1.21

2 Pears: $0.77

$4.87 at Walmart

Generic NutriGrain Bars: $2.00

6-pk Yogurt: $1.88

3 Individually wrapped string cheeses: $0.99

At this point in the week I was already over budget by 40 cents. I scraped together a little more than $6 in change out of my car and from the bottom of my purse and put a slightly less than 2 gallons of gas in my car. Technically I guess that is spending more than $20 because it is cash that was laying around, but a girl has gotta do what a girl has gotta do. If I had had the full $20 this week instead of being in the hole, I could have used that money to buy gas.

Thursday: $0

Friday: $0

Saturday: $0

It is Valentine's Day for Crayon Out Loud!

2012-02-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

It was almost exactly two years ago today that I spent my superbowl sunday making crayons. So imagine my surprise when the hottest kid's Valentine's day idea this year was homemade crayons.

Originally when I made my crayons I used a Christmas cookie mold and I divided all the crayons up by color which resulted in these cuties:

For this project I needed a lot more "new" crayons (about 30) and I didn't want to cause any sort of problems for the teacher about who got what color so I went with the "multicolored" look instead.

I didn't document the crayon making process since it is basically exactly what I did HERE. The only modification was that instead of melting the crayons in separate containers and pouring the wax into the molds, I melted the crayons directly in the molds and here is the result:

This method was actually a lot more fun for E since she got to help sort, unwrap, crush up, and fill the molds with the broken crayons. Plus we didn't have to sort the colors which was a headache.

The original idea on Pinterest was to mount the crayon onto a card and use it as the valentine. I knew however that that would be a big mess. For one, the crayons don't stick very well to the cardstock (they are wax ya' know) and they would mark up anything they came in contact with, so I had to modify the way I used them.

First I punched out circles out of pink cardstock:

I used double stick foam to attach the crayon to the card. Because the back of the crayon was slightly concave I needed to fold the foam in half to make it thicker:

Once they were stuck on the card I knew I needed to wrap them up to keep them from getting banged up and marking up anything they touched.

I cut up cellophane into manageable rectangles (approximately 7x10 inches)

I tied my bundles with simple curling ribbon, but didn't curl it just yet.

First I printed out labels onto cardstock with the phrase "Have a Happy Valentine's Day for "Crayon" Out Loud." I used the label making feature in MSWord to size them correctly.

Using my heart hole punch, I cut out the tags and punched a hole in each one

After E signed the back of each card, I tied them on and curled the ribbon.

Ta-Dah:

Stair Makeover Reveal (and Tutorial)

2012-01-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't heard, my house has a lot of oak.

A lot.

So I decided that the oak bannisters, although not super dated and completely functional needed a makeover. (For a tutorial on this project, scroll down to below the before/after photos.)

I previously painted my stairwell and changed out the light fixture and I knew it was time to update the stair rails. It took me about a week and less than $5. Here is the result:

Not bad right? Especially considering this was my inspiration:

I really like it. It goes really well with my dining room which has dark furniture:

No only did I do the downstairs rails, I also did the oak "cap" that wraps around to the half wall upstairs:

It feels a lot less dated, and because I stained the oak instead of painting it, the grain still shows though. It really is quite pretty.

So how did I do it? Here is a step by step tutorial in case you want to try it too:
Step 1: Remove the RailsRemove the rails that are attached to the wall. There are little clips that screw into the underside of the stair rail that are held by two screws. Unscrew those and lift off the rail. In my case the hardware was all brass (of course) so I had to deal with that right away.
Step 2: Update the Hardware
Rough up the hardware with some 180 grit sandpaper and spray it whatever color you want. I chose brushed nickel to match my door knobs and other hardware:

Then tape off around the brackets that remain attached to the wall. Don't remove them since they should be screwed into a stud and you don't want to risk loosening them up when you take them down and put them back up.

You can use painter's tape up around the bracket and then tape up paper, sheet plastic or a drop cloth a few feet around each bracket to prevent spraypaint from getting on anywhere else. Also be sure to put a drop cloth on the floor below the area you are spraying to catch any falling paint spray.

Depending on the color of the hardware and the color of the spray paint you may need a couple coats

Repeat on all the brackets. Don't remove the paper or tape until the paint is completely dry, in order to avoid scratching the fresh paint.

Step 3: Sand the Rails
It is a good idea to do as much of your sanding outside if it is possible. I was able to remove two rails from my stairs completely and I took those into my driveway and went after them with both my palm sander and by hand.

Start with a lower grit sandpaper (60-80) in order to remove the finish:

The rail on the right has been sanded once with 60 grit sandpaper. You will notice that the sheen is gone and it will feel almost 'chalky' to the touch.

After the finish has been removed use an 100 grit paper to smooth the surface and follow that with a 200+ to smooth the grain before staining:

You need to repeat these steps on any rails or balusters that you can't remove from the house. For the large flat surfaces I used an electric palm sander, for the curves and the rails I had to sand it by hand. This is by far the longest step. If it takes forever you are doing it right. (I spent at least 4 hours sanding the my two hand rails and the small section seen in these photos)

Another tip I have for the sanding step is to minimize dust by taping off/closing any vents anywhere need your work area. I had an air intake right below where I was sanding. The last thing I wanted was fine sawdust to blow all over the rest of the house so I taped a sheet of paper over it and the dust stayed contained to the immediate area:

Step 4: Stain the Rails

It is now time to choose your finished look. I wanted a really really dark finish (like the inspriation photo) and I also wanted to mostly hide the grain. I decided on Minwax Ebony wood finish. Remember when you are choosing your stain color to consider the type of wood you are staining. Most home improvement stores will have actual wood samples with the different colors to show you what your stain will look like on your wood type.

To apply the stain you can either you a cloth (which is messy unless you are wearing gloves) or my tool of choice, a foam applicator.

A nice thing about using the foam applicators is that they are inexpensive and can be thrown away after you are finished with the project. In between coats I store them in a ziplock bag and they stay wet so you can reuse them for additional coats, but at the end of the project, instead of cleaning them up with mineral spirits (since the stain is oil based you cannot wash them in water), I throw they away.

I actually use two applicators, one to wipe on the stain pretty heavily, and one to wipe it off. With the stain I was using, I found it worked best to apply the stain pretty heavily, wait about 10 minutes until it was a just starting to get to sticky and then use a second applicator to wipe off any areas that were drippy or too heavy. Per the manufacturer's instructions I never allowed any excess stain to sit on the wood. Always remember to wipe with the grain of the wood and from the darkest areas towards the lightest.

First coat of stain

After allowing the stain to dry approximately 6 hours, recoat with any additional coats until you get the color you desire:

Second coat

If you notice that your stain is raising the grain of your wood, you also may want to sand it in between coats. I didn't have a huge problem with the grain, so a quick once-over with the sandpaper is all that I needed. I did however need to do three coats of stain to get the dark color I wanted.

Third coat

If you are staining wood that touches other surfaces, like the walls or the balusters, be sure to tape off the area. The stain is really thin and chances are you will still get a few drips under the tape but keeping as much of that dark stain off the wrong surfaces means a lot less touch up:

Step 5: Seal the Rails

In order to protect the wood from the dirt and oil in everyone's hands, you want to coat the stained surface with polyurethane or some version of it. I settled on PolyAcrylic (which shouldn't be used if you are using a Red Mahogany stain, but is fine with the rest of the colors.) If you are using a light color you should avoid oil based top coats since they tend to yellow over time and will distort the color of your rails. You need to wait 8 hours before applying an oil based finish and 24 if you are using PolyAcrylic.

It is Poly Time!

You should do at least two, preferably three coats of sealant for maximum protection waiting two hours between each coat. Even after the poly is applied, you still will be able to see the grain of the wood since unlike paint which will settle into the grain and self-level, stain is actually absorbed into the wood

Can it be? Is that beautiful oak?

Step 6: Prime the Balusters

Once your poly is dry you can remove the painters tape and prime your rails. You should tape off any areas where the wood to be painted touches another surface (such as the wall or your beautifully newly stained rail.) Normally I would say if you have a steady hand you could just freehand along the edge of the wood the but because you are going to need so many coats here, it actually will save you time to do the taping.

Painters tape along woodwork

I used oil based Kilz primer for this project, although because you have sanded down to bare wood and because the balusters aren't high traffic areas, you could use a latex primer if you choose. I used two coats of primer and sanded (220 grit) in between each coat. Make sure you use a good quality brush for the smoothest finish, especially on the tricky nooks and crannies of turned rails. (I used a Purdy angular trim white china bristle which is the gold standard for a good finish when using oil based paints.)

After two coats of primer: looking good!

Step 7: Paint the Balusters

It is time for paint. You would typically match you balusters and molding with the rest of the molding on your stairs, which is exactly what I did. I also used this chance to touch up any scuffs and marks on the rest of the stair trim. Depending on your paint color, you will probably need two coats to get the best finish.

Step 8: Touch upFinally! The last step. At this point there is probably going to be a few drips, splats or smears of stain, paint or primer on some of your walls. Make sure you touch up those spots if you want to give this project a professional finished look. Because the stain color I chose was so dark, I actually had to touch up my mistakes with primer first and then paint over the primer with the wall color.
And there you have it!
For me, this project only cost me $4.79, the cost of a can of stain. The spraypaint, sandpaper, primer, paint and painting supplies I already had on hand.
That is a great deal since I think it looks like a million bucks!
Linking up to: NotJustAHousewife

Meal Planning with only $20 and your Pantry: Week 4

2012-01-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

We are at the bitter end of the pantry, plus I bought virtually no groceries this week, so the recipes had to be a lot less interesting. I used more starches as filler, but every meal still had a decent amount of protein.

After this I only have to make three more meals before the end of this experiment! Phew!

Sunday: Sloppy Joes and Hasselback potatoes I had a bunch of ground turkey and hamburger rolls in the freezer and because just last week we had burgers on the grill, I decided to make sloppy joe's instead. My Sloppy Joe recipe is pretty much ground meat and barbecue sauce, both of which were in my pantry. I also had some potatoes left over and decided to try oven roasting them Hasselback style. They were okay. The kids liked them.
Monday: Oven Baked "Fried" Chicken, Herbed Quinoa and Green Beans (Pinterest)

This was really easy (and only uses the most basic of pantry staples) to make and the kids liked it. Hubs and I thought it was pretty bland, but I could add a little cayenne next time. The quinoa and green beans were also out of my pantry and freezer. Tuesday: Sausage and Rice Casserole (Paula Deen)

Wednesday: Spaghetti Bolognese (Emeril/Food Network)

Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: We went out to eat! As a thank you for pet-sitting the neighbor's dogs over christmas vacation, they gave us a gift card to CPK. Yum! Wood fired pizza and no dishes to wash!

Faux Milk Glass/Jadite On A Budget

2012-01-27T09:00:00.001-08:00

I always loved the look of milk glass. It is so clean and pretty, but the real stuff can be pricey unless you get really lucky and stumble upon it at a yard sale or thrift store.

Real Jadite and milkglass: Cha-ching!

(image courtesy of jaditekate)

So I decided to make my own!

I took a 50 cent vase I previously bought at Ikea and 75 cent vase I got at Goodwill

I had white and avocado spray paint. I am not sure why I had avacado spraypaint already, but I knew it would be perfect for this.

I sealed it with high gloss clear coat and this is what I ended up with:

Clustered all together witha few others I picked up for under a dollar and you have a pretty cute little collection. All for virtually no money!

My Valentine's Day Mantle for 0$

2012-01-25T08:24:00.000-08:00

As I said before, I don't normally decorate for Valentine's Day, but this year courtesy of Pinterest and a link up party at HomestoriesAtoZ, I decided I would dec out the mantle this year.

I already blogged about how I used the old girls' room paint chips to make a DIY garland:

Because of my January $20/week budget challenge I couldn't afford to spend a penny on this project so I needed to scour the house for anything else that could pass as valentine's day decor. I decided on my Christmas wreath that had previously been hanging on the mantle:

To make it less christmassy I used the remaining paint chips and cut around the voids left by my hole punch to make heart outlines for my wreath.

I scrounged around the kids' toy closet and settled on some wooden blocks to spell out a little Valentine's Day message. The extras I threw into some little glass canisters. I also found E's pink feather boa and used that to pump up the pink factor.

I also decided to make a rustic board sign using crepe paper streamer roses that I found on pinterest:

I will do a step by step tutorial in the future. It was made completely out of supplies I had laying around the house, so it was free.

I had an ivory Lenox vase and matching bud vase that I filled with budding branches I cut from our flowering pear tree and added some red candles in crystal candlesticks left over from christmas. (They are actually no longer standing up straight, they are kinda warped, but they will have to do.) I also added a row of candles I got at IKEA last summer and that have been sitting in my closet ever since:

I had the big pom poms I made for E's birthday party leftover and I put those on the hearth to complete the pinkness.

I am not madly in love with it. It is a little hodge podge for my blood, but it was absolutely free with only things I already had laying around the house. Not bad when you take that into account!

What happens when the kids find your camera

2012-01-24T09:20:00.000-08:00

Yep.

When a 2 year old and 5 year old get ahold of your camera, you are bound to find some interesting subject matter:

La La Loopsy

Tiger Kitty (read her adventure story here)

The potty (yes in the kitchen/living room.)

Currently this is their favorite movie

Peek-a-boo

I included this one because even I am impressed with how clean my kitchen floor was! Maybe they were trying to document it.

Meal Planning with only your Pantry and $20 Week 3

2012-01-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

This week was really crazy at our house. We had a lot of extra curricular activities and hubs had to work late a couple nights. That made meal planning a lot more difficult.

Sunday: Leftover chili.

I actually took the kids to see Beauty and the Beast at the movie theater with a gift card we received at Christmas. I snuck in some juice boxes and fruit snacks and signed up for the theater's loyalty program in order to receive a free small popcorn. The kids were so full of junk that they weren't really hungry anyhow.

Monday: Herb-Crusted Petite Sirloin, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Green Bean Almondine

I bought potatoes last week but the steak and beans were in the freezer.

Tuesday: Burgers and Steak Fries

Because the weather has been so great, we decided to grill out. I had frozen steak fries in the freezer.

Wednesday: Frozen Pizza and Mixed Veggies

E had a Girl Scout meeting and hubs was working late so I wanted something fast and easy since the kids were about to chew off their arms by the time we got home. Normally we go out to eat on the third Wednesday of the month, but that wasn't happening.

Thursday: Chicken Taco Pie (Betty Crocker)

This was good and easy. I did have to spend nearly $2.50 to buy cheddar cheese and I also added a bag of frozen mixed Mexican veggies (black beans, corn, broccoli and peppers) which made it more hearty.

Friday: Mexican Hash Brown Dinner (Pinterest)

This was basically the same recipe as yesterday only instead of Bisquick and chicken, you use hash browns and ground beef. Although the original recipe only called for corn, I once again added mixed Mexican veggies. I chose it because I had a bag of hash browns in the freezer I was trying to get rid of, and needed a casserole that didn't use a cream soup or sour cream base. The kids and hubs liked this a lot more than the previous night's version.

Saturday: Spaghetti Mariana

This is hubs 'go-to' meal. He would eat it every day if I let him. Since I was busy working on a home improvement project (I will reveal later) he cooked dinner and of course he chose spaghetti.

All in all this week's meal weren't nearly as creative as previous weeks, but we are still mostly dining out of the pantry. Only 10 more days to go. Hopefully I can hang in there!

$20 Weekly Budget: Week 3

2012-01-21T16:52:00.000-08:00

Week 3 has been a tough one. Mostly because I at this point in the month, the things I have been putting off are starting to catch up with me. I needed to mail a package that had been sitting on my kitchen table since.. I don't know when. I am learning that $20 is the bare minimum I need to live on without including anything extra. $20 basically covers perishable food and nothing else. So what happens when extra costs pop up? I knew it was going to be ugly.

So here is how the costs broke down this week. I am sad to report that this week I went into the red.

Sunday: $0

Monday: $10.39 at the Post Office (OUCH!)

Tuesday: $0

Wednesday: $11.13 at the Farmer's Market
Whole Wheat Bread: $0.99
1 lb Oatmeal: $1.05
5 lbs Potatoes: $1.50
3 Pints Blackberries: $2.31
4 Apples: $1.25
2 Oranges: $0.51
Celery: $0.88
1 lb Cheddar Cheese: $2.69

At this point I am already over budget by $3 but have run out of milk and I know I cannot make it to Sunday without it. I decided to "overdraw my account" and start next week with even less money.
Damn.

Thursday: $4.59 at Costco for 2 gallons of milk

Friday: $0

Saturday: $0

So next week I am already starting off $6.11 in the hole AND my car is in desperate need of gas.

Nobody said this was going to be easy. At this point I just want this experiment to end. I have a new appreciation for people who live on a really tight budget. It really is life changing.

More Free Crafts: Veggie Stamped Giftwrap

2012-01-20T14:45:00.000-08:00

We had to attend a birthday party last weekend and although we were able to secure a gift using a gift card on Friday, we didn't have any child's gift wrap lying around.

What we did have were sheets of packing paper, some tempura paint and a crisper full of veggies.

Just like I remember doing back in elementary school, it was veggie stamping time.

We tried three different veggies:

The base of celery stalks (which look like flowers):

Potatoes (I cut a star pattern into them):

And carrots (which are little circles):

I laid the paper on the floor and just let the kids go at it and here is what we ended up with:

Perfect for wrapping up a gift with love.

Festive on a Budget: Paint Chip Garland!

2012-01-19T14:23:00.000-08:00

I don't normally decorate for Valentine's Day. I have to say I don't really know anyone that does.. but when I saw a cute garland idea on pinterest that made Valentine's day decor out of paint chips, I decided I would give it a shot. My house was overrun with pink paint chips when I was deciding on paint colors for the girls' room. (You can see them here all lined up on the floor):

So I whipped out the heart hole punch and went to town:

In the original tutorial she hands sews them together.. Uh, yeah. That is crazy talk. I ran those bad boys through the sewing machine:

All in all I had about 15 chips with 4 colors and I was able to get about 8 punches per card. That gave me enough to make two long swaggable garlands:

My colors are all pretty light pink. If you were taking samples from the paint store you could mix it up a bit more:

But all in all I think it is pretty festive. For ABSOLUTELY NO MONEY! Perfect for my budget.

This post was part of:
Today's Creative Blog's"Get your Craft On" Link Party
Sugar Bee Craft's "Take a Look" Tuesday
HomeStoriesAtoZ Tutorials &Tips Party

Meal Planning with only your Pantry and $20 Week 2

2012-01-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

Week 2 was a little tougher than week 1 when it came to meal planning and working completely out of my pantry. The pickings were starting to get a little slim. Unlike last week, I had to do a little more pre-planning this week and had to make a few more trips to the grocery store to complete my meal ideas.

Sunday: Chicken Pho Soup (recipe off the box)

I already had a box of Pho Soup base in my pantry and I grilled a couple chicken breasts on my George Forman, but I didn't have any of the other ingredients for this. I had to spend $1.15 on rice noodles and $1.99 on bean sprouts.

Monday: Ham and Noodle Casserole (Pinterest)

When I was looking for a way to get rid of the leftover holiday ham I came across this recipe on Pinterest. I decided to save it and not use it right away, and this week seemed like a good time to give it a shot. Since I had egg noodles and soup on hand I only needed to buy the sour cream ($1.99). The original recipe calls for swiss cheese but I used mozzerella since that is what I had in the freezer

Tuesday: Leftovers
That casserole makes a TON of food.

Wednesday: Grilled Northwood's Chicken, Parmesan Rice and Broccoli

This was basically boneless skinless chicken breasts seasoned with Penzey's Northwoods Seasoning (Paprika, thyme, rosemary, garlic and chipotle) similar to the Penzey's baked version shown above. It was paired with Rice-a-Roni and steamed broccoli. All from the pantry.

Thursday: Beef Chili (Penzey's) and homemade cornbread

I had a ton of canned tomatoes and sauce, plus ground beef in the freezer. I knew I could make chili so I had to buy beans and pasta (since I include noodles in my chili.) I ended up spending 89c on the pasta (i had to use shells instead of elbows because they were cheaper) and 88c on 1/2 a pound of beans (which I had to buy dry since they were cheaper than 2 cans at 99c/each.) I had all the cornbread ingredients on hand.

Friday: Leftovers. (I had enough chili to feed an army.. For the kids, I added some to hotdogs and had Chili-dogs)

Saturday: We ate out at Soup/Salad Buffet Restaurant!!

How did I do it? Well, I signed up to be a mystery shopper and was able to have my meal reimbursed in exchange for filling out a survey about my experience. Because of confidential issues, I can't tell you which company or which restaurant.

All in all a pretty good week! Lots of variety and we haven't (yet) had to resort to Ramen!

$20 Weekly Budget: Week 2 Results

2012-01-14T17:00:00.000-08:00

Here is how my spending for Week 2 of the $20/week challenge went:

I started the week with $1.67 surplus.

Sunday: $3.14 at Safeway
Rice noodles: $1.15
Bean sprouts: $1.99

$1.18 at Target
Cat food. I actually had a store credit at Target for a return I made last month, so I saved $4.05 off my purchase.

Monday: $0.47 at Walgreens
4 cans chicken broth: $2- $1 coupon
3 cans soup: $2.98-50c coupon
I also had the $3 off coupon I earned last week

$2.97 at Fresh and Easy
3 apples: $0.98
Sour cream: $1.99

Tuesday: $8.07 at CVS
Jet dry: $3.50-$1coupon
Tortilla chips: $1.79
4 pounds sugar: $2.99-42 coupon
24 pack water: $2.44 + 1.20 bottle deposit

When I looked at my reciept at CVS I realized I hadn't factored in the extra 5c per bottle they charge in the state of California for the redemption value. It then struck me that I had cans and bottles sitting around the garage. It was like FREE money!

Since my balance for the remainder of the week was already down to $5.84 I knew this was as good time as any to cash them in. All my cans and bottles were worth +$11.07

To reward myself for that brilliant strategy:
$3.58 at Starbucks

Wednesday: $4.59 at Costco for 2 gallons of milk

Thursday: $6.23 at the Farmer's Market
Half pound dry kidney beans (bulk): $0.88
Pound of white rice (bulk): $0.93
1/3 pound sea salt: $0.14
Pound of baby carrots: $0.99
2 pints blackberries: $1.98
3 apples: $0.99
3 tomatoes: $0.50

$2.18 at Grocery Outlet
Pound of Pasta: $0.89
Flour totillas: $1.29

Friday: $0
Even though I spent no cash on Friday, my gas tank was on E and I needed a birthday gift for a little boy in E's class. I had a Toys R Us gift card for $25 and I knew if I got my balance below $10 I could get the difference back in cash. So I purchased a $14.99 Transformer for the party, and used the remaining change ($8.96) to put about 2 gallons of gas in the van.

Saturday: $0

Surplus at the end of the week: $0.33

All in all this week was MUCH MORE DIFFICULT. If it weren't for figuring out way to increase the amount I could spend I would not have been able to get through it. I am starting to run out of options for generating extra spending money.

Updating the hallway for $0

2012-01-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

Our house was previously a rental until when we bought it. In order to neutralize it and make it easy to maintain the previous owner had every.single.surface (walls, ceilings, vents, switchplates) painted either bone or antique white.

Yawn.

Our stairway up to the second floor looked like a giant white abyss (not to mention the atrocious brass lamp):

From the front entry way, living room and dining room you can see up the stairs onto the giant white blank wall:

J on Christmas morning

It was time to change it up.

First thing I did was pull out this shiny brass number:

Because I am on a spending freeze, I decided to replace it with the fixture previously hanging above my kitchen table:

(When I removed the 80s fluorescent light in the kitchen, I replaced all the fixtures. I never really hated the original chandelier but I wanted all the new ones to match)

It wasn't the ideal solution because the chain is much shorter than the one on the brass fixture, but I made due. I did have to move the hook closer to the fixture itself, and therefore had an excuse to whip out this beauty:

My christmas present this year: A new cordless drill!

The hook was not drilled into a stud, but had been hanging from a toggle bolt, so that is exactly how I rehung it.

I then decided i needed an accent wall, to accentuate the fact that there is a 22 foot ceiling in the stairwell. I couldn't afford new paint, but I loved the color I used in the kids' bathroom (Martha Stewart's Buckwheat Flour.) It is pretty neutral and dark enough to contrast with the white walls and trim, but not super dark for the windowless area.

The challenge was getting up to the ceiling to paint (although it was not nearly as big of a nightmare as hanging the new fixture from the ceiling!) I used my 16 foot extension ladder for the painting:

For the fixtures I had to use a very very scary scaffolding set up.

It was my 12-foot folding ladder (which I couldn't unfold all the way because the space wasn't wide enough), and my 10-foot little giant adjustable ladder set up on the stairs. Between them are two rusty nail-laden boards that previously formed the fluorecent light fixture housing I tore out of my kitchen ceiling. Because I had to use the top step of the folding ladder, there was nothing to hold on to. I was basically walking along a shakey balance beam, 12 feet above the top steps and more than 20 feet over the rail and onto the ground floor.

Clearly I survived. But shhh don't tell OSHA.

All in all I am very happy with how it came out:

It may not be the most dramatic makeover one has ever seen, but at least now it doesn't scream "80's tract home!" And this isn't the end, oh no. This is only what I could do for ZERO dollars.

Eventually I am going to stain my generic builder oak stair rails:

No, my stairs aren't still decorated for christmas. I dont' have an updated picture!

The rail will be dark dark and the balusters white so it looks more like my Pinterest inspiration:

Isn't that GORGEOUS?!

I don't have the money to buy the stain this month, although I may start the sanding and priming as my next project. We shall see..

Changing the style of my Sewing Room for $1

2012-01-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

When we moved into this house the previous owners left us this.. uh... well.. uh.. "taste-specific" chandelier in the dining room:

Now to be fair, her house had UBER traditional furniture and so it wasn't as awful is it appears in isolation:

My furniture is not Queen Anne style so I had to do something about this brass jeweled monstrosity:

The pictures of the actual chandelier I have are difficult to see, but I was stumbled upon this photo which is my exact chandelier without the crystals. On mine the center glass globe in shaped like an hour glass and my "candles" are white not gold. This one was for sale at an antique auction house for $500. *Cough! Cough! WHAT?!*

Well.. since it is worth that much, let's see how I can use it now shall we?

First thing I did was take off all the glass bowls and the globe. Then I taped it off to spray paint it white, so it would look a little more shabby-chic.

When it was white I went to reattach the crystals and realized that they looked terrible because each one was held on a by a tiny brass clip

I therefore removed all the brass clips, one by one, with a needle nose pliers.

It took me a little more than 2 hours. There are easily over 400 clips on this chandelier.

I then realized I was out of spray paint! OUCH. This is where my last $1.05 for the week comes in. I went to Home Depot and bought the El Cheapo white gloss spray paint and coated the clips.

Here is where it gets ugly. I didn't take note of how the crystals were attached to the chandelier! Big mistake! I only had those 2 grainy pictures I showed you above to go on. I was screwed. I also had removed the glass bowls and nearly 1/3 of the crystals hung off the bowls directly.

I decided to just make it up as I went along and slowly reassembled the crystals on the clips. I will say that the Quik Color paint didn't hold up very well to the pliers (although I doubt any paint over brass would) but it was okay. Anything was better than the brass clips:

I removed the old pineapple laden chandelier from the ceiling:

I am not quite sure that is Queen Anne style, but that is what they left me! You also can see I have an pink and yellow flowered stained glass window in this room. I figure that gives me carte blanche to make this my own girly room.

And here it is:

My new shabby chic chandelier fits right in. The cord is a little short because the ceiling in this room is lofted, but it is okay.

I think I may put the light on a dimmer in the future, but I am going to wait until the cabinetry is painted.

All in all it is a pretty big style change for a mere $1.05

Meal Planning with only your Pantry and $20

2012-01-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

I am sure many people think that with only $20 a week a family of 4 must be surviving on Ramen noodles and Kool-aid, but that can't be farther from the truth. This week we stayed under budget and still ate well.

I am really lucky that I am an avid (but not crazy) couponer who keeps a decent stockpile of the basics in the pantry. The key is to figure out what you have, and how you can use it.

The meals I made this week were all based around something I already had in my pantry. I didn't really have anything planned, but every morning I scoped out the fridge and figured out (usually with the help of Pinterest) what I could make based on a single key ingredient. Here are the results:

Sunday: Bean and Ham Soup (Pinterest)

I made this from the leftover ham bone I had frozen after Christmas dinner. I did have to purchase beans but buying a pound of bulk dried beans only cost $0.89.

Monday: Shepherd's pie. (Pinterest)

I had all the ingredients I needed for a mirepoix and hoped it could be a base for a hearty recipe when I stumbled onto this version of shepherd's pie. I did buy potatoes this week and spent $1.10, but I had the rest of the ingredients to this Weight Watchers friendly recipe in my freezer.

Tuesday: Chicken Parmesan (my own secret recipe)

This was another dish made completely out of frozen and pantry items, since who doesn't have frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts, pasta, spaghetti sauce, bread crumbs and Parmesan on hand? If you are married to an Italian, like I am, you certainly do.

Wednesday: Stuffed Peppers. (Pinterest)

Green peppers were on sale this week so I bought 3($1) knowing I could use them for this. Although this recipe didn't call for it, I added ground beef that was already in my stockpile.

Thursday: Leftovers. We had a little bit of everything left from the 4 previous nights. Time to clean out the fridge.

Friday: Penne with Acorn Squash and Sausage. (Pinterest)

I have had an acorn squash sitting on my counter for as long as I can remember so I decided to figure out how to use it. The original recipe called for pancetta and I was planning on substituting bacon. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that I was out of bacon until I was halfway through so I used some sweet Italian sausage instead. The remaining ingredients also came out of the pantry.

$20 Weekly Budget: Week 1 Results

2012-01-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Week 1 of the $20/week challenge went okay. My week starts on Sunday and runs through Saturday. Here is how $20 broke down.

Sunday: $0

Monday: $0

Tuesday: $4.59 for 2 gallons of milk at Costco.

Normally we drink both whole and skim milk in our house. I would either buy 2 gallons at the grocery store for about $3.19/each or buy 4 gallons at Costco. (Since Costco only sells milk in 2-packs) However, this week we are all drinking skim milk.

Wednesday: $1.24 for 4 boxes of cereal and a 6 pack of toilet paper at Walgreens

Yes, I only paid $1.24, thanks to last week's printable cash back coupons. General Mills cereals were on sale 4 for $10 plus you got a $3 coupon for your next visit. Charmin Toilet Paper was on sale $3.99 for 6 double rolls plus I had a 50c off coupon. I had 2-$6 off coupons from previous purchases so my out of pocket cost was $1.24 PLUS I have a $3 coupon to spend next week.

$11.45 at the Farmers Market

3/4 lb Oatmeal (bulk): $0.73

1 lb Granola (bulk): $1.91

1 lb baby carrots: $.99

2 packs Strawberries: $3

4 Apples: $1.21

3 Tangelos $0.73

3 Green Peppers: $1

Leaf Lettuce: $0.88

3 Large Potatoes: $1.10

Thursday:$0

Friday:$0

Saturday: $1.05 for one can of white high gloss spray paint at Home Depot
We went to Home Depot because it was the Kids Workshop and both J and E love to pound a few nails and take home a free DIY project (today was a birdhouse) and I knew I had about $3 left for the week. I really wanted Rustoleum brand but that was $3.67 a can (plus tax) so I had to go with the 97 cent Quik Color. (The big project reveal for that spray paint is coming up this week!)

TOTAL SPENT: $18.33

I actually have $1.67 for next week!!!

For me the hardest part of the week was the big adjustment to not stop for a latte at the drive-thru every time I went out and about, and I was a lot more aware of the fact that I *HAD* to have a meal on the table every night. There wasn't enough money to go out to eat on a whim. But once I psychologically adjusted, I did okay. I am pretty sure it is going to get harder as the weeks go on because this week we ate A LOT of food out of our pantry. Once the pasta and frozen chicken breasts are gone, it is going to be a lot more difficult.

Home Improvement on a $0 budget

2012-01-05T23:45:00.000-08:00

Let me preview today's post with evidence that home improvement projects and parenthood don't always mix:

Those are 2 year old footprints..

..through oil based primer..

..on freshly painted boards..

..and onto my garage floor.

Sigh.

But more about that later. Onto the project at hand!

Since I am not able to bite off any new projects this month due to my complete lack of funds I decided I would tackle the projects that have been sitting around untouched. Most of them are untouched because they aren't very exciting and they are parts of rooms that I haven't started redoing yet.

For example, the first project is a large shelving unit that will house all my crafting supplies in my sewing room. The sewing room has never been touched. Here is what it looks like currently (plus a whole lot of junk is being stored in there right now):

For starters it needs to be repainted, it needs a new light, to have some (shocker) oak cabinets painted and to have a set of doors installed to close it off from the master bedroom. None of this has been done.

You can see it already has some great storage and a built in work desk, but it still isn't enough room to store everything I need for my sewing and crafting.

But a shelving unit is putting the cart before the horse since the room isn't ready to house anything just quite yet.

However... my sister recently moved out of the country and left me with this beast which I knew would be perfect to house all my goodies:

Don't recognize it? Well if it was assembled it would look like this (only in that awful cheap WalMart laminate oak color):

My plan was to paint it the same color that I am going to paint the cabinets, Martha Stewart Glass of Milk (the color I previously used on the cabinets in my laundry room) and add it to the blank wall opposite of the built ins.

Of course, when painting cheap veneered MDF furniture there are some tricks. #1 and MOST IMPORTANT: OIL BASED PRIMER! If you use a latex primer the grain of the wood will swell and the veneer will come lose.

So that is what I did. 1 coat of oil-based Kilz.

I used a high nap roller for the primer and it worked great. No brush strokes and great coverage.

Now this is where it gets ugly. As I am finishing priming the last (of 28!!) parts to this bookcase I hear J call out "Look Mommy! Foo-prints!" and I know immediately I'm in trouble.

Apparently she thought the small boards were hopscotch squares and felt the need to step on them.. ALL OF THEM.

She then jumped off the boards and onto the floor where her little Robeez left permanent (albeit cute) footprints both on my garage floor and driveway.

I guess this will be a project I won't ever forget, since there will be a constant reminder every time I step out of the car.

Undeterred I touched up the primer and added two coats of latex paint (unlike the primer coat, any additional coats of paint on MDF can be water based as long as your first layer is solvent based):

The giant shelving unit now lies in my garage in pieces. It is calling out to be assembled but it will have to wait until next month when I once again can buy paint.

Cost for this project:

Ikea Expedit Shelving Unit: Free ($229 retail)

Oil-Based Killz: Free (laundry room project)

Martha Stewart Glass of Milk Latex Paint: Free (laundry room project)

Total cost: ZILTCH!

Could you survive on $20/week?

2012-01-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

$20.

Doesn't seem like very much. And in fact, for a family of 4 $20 is only one trip to a fast food restaurant, one trip though Target, a single admission to the movies.

Could you live on $20 a week? Even if it was only for one month (four and a half weeks)?

I am going to try.

Clearly I am not including my rent, utilities, or other standing expenses (the cost of gas for my husband to commute to work, our monthly payment for ballet lessons etc) but I am including EVERYTHING ELSE. Anything we would normally charge to our credit card or pay cash for.

Groceries, entertainment, dining out, clothing, toiletries, gifts, household goods, haircuts, even home improvement projects!!!

To put that cut into perspective, our last three month's of credit card bills have all been in excess of $2000.

That means my goal is to spend 1% of my what we normally spend in a month! ONE PERCENT!

I do have an extensive pantry and freezer stockpile right now, and I will be able to use coupons and gift cards but the goal is not spend any MONEY.

I was inspired to do this by Stephanie at Full of Great Ideas who is having a challenge to not spend anything on "non-essential" items. To me that is too easy. I can always say that food and dining out and buying a gift for an upcoming birthday are "essential." The true test is saying, can you find cheaper alternatives for the essentials? Can you be creative and stretch a dollar.. REALLLLLLY stretch a dollar.

I will try to post weekly with where the money went and if I was able to stay in budget. Here goes nothing!

How an ugly owl saved me $34

2011-12-27T23:37:00.000-08:00

Today at the thrift store I found this little fellow:

He was $3. It even looks like someone tried to "fix him up" by painting his eyeballs. Really they only reminded me of the Apple Power Button:

It also looks like he previously served a purpose: holding scouring pads by the sink. Hence the giant gaping hole in the back of his head and rust stains in the bottom:

Now I know what you are thinking. That is one UGLY owl.

Why yes, yes it is.

And you are asking yourself, why did I waste $3 perfectly good dollars on an ugly owl? That could buy me half a Starbucks Latte!!

The answer once again lies with Pinterest**. I knew I can make him look like this:

Much better isn't it?

All it took was a little of this (in high gloss white):

Krylon Dual (which is spray paint that includes a primer.)

Now my little buddy sits in my Solarium window and will eventually hold a little plant (instead of Brillo pads.)

Total cost of project:

$3 Owl

$3.44 Paint (although I only used about 10% of a can)

Total: $6.44

And tonight I almost dropped dead when I found THIS on etsy. Price Tag: $40!!

Look familiar?!? I guess I just saved myself $34!

E really really wanted me to paint him bright pink. I guess she gets her 'good ideas gene' from her mom:

Also from Etsy

Now I just need to find another ugly owl.

**The inspiration came from this pin (actually, I saw the original owl on The Nester but was reminded of it by this pin on Pinterest. Since then there are dozens of white painted ceramic owls on there, but she is where I saw it first.)

Pasta Snowflakes!

2011-12-22T00:03:00.000-08:00

The girls and I finished up another Pinterest project tonight and they came out too cute not to share.

The original pin was for these macaroni snowflakes.

Because I had some dyed pasta left over from a project I did with the girls earlier this fall (making wagon wheel necklaces) I thought I would give it a shot.

Here is what we ended up with:

It was really simple. We took the mini wheel pasta and used plain white school glue to assemble snowflakes.

Even my two year old could do it (although her snowflakes were more like snowballs!) How do you like that orange and green "fall" pasta. It is just regular pasta mixed with a little rubbing alcohol and a couple drops of food color and then left to dry.

We assembled the snowflakes on waxed paper so that we would be able to peel them off without breaking them (the glue dripped downwards due to gravity and we didn't want to glue them to the table.)

After they were dry I had intended to spray them white like the original idea and sprinkle them with clear glitter.

Unfortanately, I don't have any white spray paint.. but I did have high gloss silver/chrome that I used for my bathroom debrassifying!

It looked AWESOME!

I also sprinkled a few with glitter, but I am not sure I like it much more than the plain ones. It is harder to tell it is actually pasta.

All in all I think they came out FANTASTIC. Maybe even better than the original!

Feeding my Pinterest addiction

2011-12-19T22:54:00.000-08:00

I originally got on to Pinterest to help search out interior design ideas for my house rehab. (Like the chair rail molding on my kitchen ceiling.) However, after being on that website only a short while (I registered for the site in early October) I have become consumed by the overwhelming number of ideas for other things like crafts, food and holiday design.

I thought I would share a few of the projects I have worked on lately, which are solely due to Pinterest. These are things I NEVER would have attempted if I hadn't stumbled upon them there.

Baby Shower Sushi Gift

Inspired by this pin

This is made up of 6 pairs of baby socks (the blue and brown), 4 baby wash clothes (The orange and white) and a onsie (under the fish). The fish itself if a teether toy and inside the take out box are mini bottles of baby shampoo and baby powder. The black material is grosgrain ribbon and the rolls are held in place with simple black headed straight pins.

A pumpkin made out of toilet paper tubes

Pinned here

This was a little more complicated than I first thought. We painted the circles after we cut up the cardboard. If I was to do it again, i would just paint the entire tube and then cut it up. Also it took a LOT of glue to get the thin, not exactly straight slices of cardboard to stick to the paper. This was frustrating to a 5 year old, and really messy:

A Q-tip Skeleton:

Originally pinned here

It was pretty hard to cut through the q-tips. I ended up doing all the cutting and the girls just glued them down.

A paper bag turkey

Originally inspired by this pin

He was filled with snack size bags of popcorn and we "cut and served" him during the Kindergarten thanksgiving feast.

A Teacher "Survival Kit"

Pinned here.

This is a series of items each with a significant meaning described in the following poem:

Poem source

It was part of the teacher gifts I gave to the kindergarten teachers for Christmas. I picked up most of the items at the dollar store (including the baskets) and it cost me a total of $15 to make both of them.

Button Christmas Ornaments

Original here

I had planned to make a number of these but the original version used all white headed pins. When I went to purchase white headed pins, I realized it was going to cost me nearly $6 PER ORNAMENT just for the white pins. So instead I used mixed colored pins and picked out the white, red and green ones. I then made a second ornament (the left one) with black and navy pins.

Framed photo letters

Source for 1000s of printable letter photographs

This is my niece's name. The original idea is to frame each letter alone, but when a name is 14 letters long, that gets unruly. Instead I used a glass floating frame with 2 inch square letters. Originally I was going to allow the black and white letters float between the clear glass without a background like this:

However, because of the gap between the two names you could see the hanging hardware through the glass. Therefore I decided to back the name with wrapping paper (this could be changed to fit in with the decor where it is hung.)

I also have Pinterest to thank for a E's 6th birthday party as well as a few additional Christmas gifts that I am still working on. (I think I will save those for another post.) As you can see, Pinterest has kept me pretty busy. So busy in fact, that I haven't gotten around to any more home improvement projects, but it isn't due to lack of ideas!

Dining Room: Before and After

2011-12-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

When you walk into the Money Pit, the first room you see is the dining room. It is a long, thin, windowless room with the stairs on one side, a walk in closet in one corner and a giant mirror that the previous owner had pretty much permanently installed (so no earthquakes can shake it down.)

Here it is from the MLS photos (although when we toured the house the furniture had already been removed):

Needless to say, not really my style!

Here is it the day we moved in:

Once again, there were brass switchplate covers as well as a brass and crystal chandelier. Yikes.

The first thing I did was pull out that fixture and replace the switchplates. I found a nice oil rubbed bronze chandelier that matched my side tables for $75 on clearance at Home Depot. I didn't need to paint the room because the color was fine, and I left the mirror because it wasn't terrible. It definitely made the room feel bigger

Then I went with a black-brown color scheme. The only thing I needed to add was the dining table, that I picked up at IKEA. Everything else was from my old house.

Along the long side wall I put up random picture frames which I spray painted matte black so they all matched. Then I framed black and white family photos to unite the look. I know that formal interior design rules say you should only have personal photos in personal spaces (like bedrooms) but I ignored that rule. Since I'm not a formal girl, and my family are the ones who spend all their time in these rooms, I included personal photos in my public living spaces.

And now, since it is almost Christmas, the rooms are eve more decked out:

I'm really happy how it came out. Total cost of makeover: $80

I wish they were all this easy!

How to Shave 30 Years Off Your Kitchen

2011-11-28T00:07:00.000-08:00

The one room in the house that can date it more than any other is the kitchen. Walk into any house where the kitchen has not been updated and you can pretty much guess the year it was built. So, based on the lovely oak handleless cabinets, flurosecent light fixture and creamy white appliances in mine you can rest assured it was built in the late 80s, early 90s.

Here is the listing photo from the MLS when we purchased the house:

Yep.. 1988.

What really screams out at you is the giant box fixture protruding out of the ceiling about 8 inches. I am not sure why anyone thought that was a good look (although it does throw a TON of light since it houses three huge 2-bulb fluorescent lights).

One thing we do have going for us is that the original nasty white tile countertops have been replaced with granite. Thank goodness. Here is another house in our subdivision and this is the original countertop that was installed in 1988:

You will notice though that they at least attempted to update the kitchen with the painted cabinets, addition of door and drawer hardware and the updating of the appliances. I am not a fan of the chicken wire cutouts, but at least they did SOMETHING.

Like the people in the other house, the first thing we did to the kitchen was replace our energy inefficient 22 year old appliances with all new stainless steel ones from Bosch. And look what we found behind the microwave:

Ah yes! There it is! The 1988 3x3 tiles. How quaint.

The next thing on the list: THE UGLY LIGHT.

First I pulled off the plastic and the oak trim:

Then I went after the wood and sheet rock box that was embedded in the ceiling:

It was actually the hardest part of the project and made the biggest mess:

Eventually I got the entire box down and cleaned up the demo debris:

To replace the large amount of light I was removing, I decided I wanted a hanging fixture above the island, as well as one above the sink and then I wanted to add can lights over all my work spaces. I mapped out my wiring diagram on my grocery list:

Fortunately because removing the original fixture left a gaping hole in the ceiling, I was able to wire the new can lights myself. I went with LED to save on electricity costs since the lights are pretty much on in the kitchen 100% of the time.

I fell in love with this barrel shade set of fixtures at home depot:

I then repaired the ceiling with a drywall patch:

Taped and mudded:

There also was the problem that the ceiling in the house has a knockdown/orange peel texture.

So even after retexuring the patch using an aerosol texture product it still didn't look perfect:

I tried to live with it, but I couldn't stand it. I knew I had to hide the patch, so based on a photo I saw on pinterest, I decided to put in some molding. I used a stock chair rail they had at home depot along with a thinner type of window trim:

I painted the trim the same color as ceiling. In fact I repainted the entire kitchen ceiling since it was previously a semi-gloss. Now that my lighting actually is focused down I no longer needed to bounce it off a the gloss finish of the ceiling and if you want to hide imperfections in a wall or ceiling paint with MATTE finish.

So there you have it.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The day we moved in (BEFORE:)

Today (AFTER):

BEFORE:

AFTER:

You can see I also decided to change out the fixture over the kitchen table, so it would match. I also removed the lovely brass switch plate cover and you no longer can see the line on the ceiling where the semi-gloss kitchen paint met with the matte paint of the dining area.

There is still a LONG way to go. I am going to do something to the cabinets, either painting or staining them, plus I need to add hardware and a backsplash, but for now I would say the room looks at least 20 years younger!

Bathroom Before and After

2011-09-28T00:24:00.000-07:00

I have already alluded to the bathroom makeover when I blogged earlier about de-brassing the girls' bathroom. Well, it is FINISHED!

Almost.

I still need to paint all the trim since for whatever reason the baseboards were only primed and never caulked or painted when the previous owners replaced the floor. However, the big exciting part of the makeover is finished!

I really love it. I still wish the engineered marble was gone, especially the weird little shelf over the toilet, but for now, it will do. I will blog about the details, especially cutting down and framing the mirror but for now.. the big reveal.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After: