Gotta Love DIY Quick Tip- Never Buy Swiffer Solution Again!

Hey guys! So as I'm working on my pelmets, I just wanted to share a quick trick that I learned after scouring the internet for green cleaner recipes.  Did you know that you can refill your Swiffer solution bottle?! Not only that, but once you see how easy it is you'll be doing a happy dance of your own!

Step 1: Grab your empty Swiffer bottle.

Step 2: Boil about 2 inches of water.

Step 3: Submerge the white cap portion in the water and hold for 30 seconds.

Step 4: Remove the cap by pressing down while turning counter-clockwise (like you are opening a vitamin bottle).  Refill the container with your favorite cleaner, and simply twist the cap right back on.  It will fit back into your Swiffer perfectly with zero drips or drops!

So that's it! All that's left to do now is sit back and bask in your handiness.  I hope you guys find this as useful as I have.  I know it may seem like a no-brainer, but the cost of all those refill bottles can really add up.  Not to mention all of the empty plastic bottles you will save from the local landfill (always nice to throw a bone to mother nature!).  But my favorite part has to be knowing exactly what is going into the cleaners I use around my home.  Does anyone else out there has their own why-didn't-I-think-of-that cleaning tricks? I'd love to add to my arsenal.  Until next time, stay crafty my friends!

I May, You May, We All Love A Pelmet!

Full disclosure, I have never even heard of a "pelmet" until a couple days ago.  But lately, I've been trying to spruce up our bedroom a bit.  I whipped up some curtains from this gorgeous rosey silver velvet fabric (photos to come), but our windows still looked a little sparse.  So I thought, what about those box things you can put at the top? I wonder how much those cost. Its A LOT guys....wow is it a lot.  So I had my newest project, to make two matching window box things that looked like they were legit but were, in fact, SUPER cheap (it is Christmas time after all!).  I had some fabric left over from my aforementioned curtains so that one was easy, I also had some batting left over from our old couch. Long story, needless to say when you have a 20lb king charles spaniel who likes to perch on the back of the couch it takes its toll so we attempted to wrap our two back cushions with batting to tighten things up, which worked, for a while.  We've since upgraded to the Ektorp sofa from Ikea which is fantastic.

But back to the project at hand.  So I had my fabric, I had my batting, all I needed now was a pattern and a "skeleton" as a base for the pelmets.  The pattern came easy enough, I just googled pelmets until I found a pattern I liked.  Then I measured the length of my window and divided by two.  I decided to create a pattern for just half of the window and then flip it so they would be mirror images of each other.  Then I measured out the distance on some dollar store craft paper and sketched a quick grid, dividing it into quarters length and width wise so I could have reference points to sketch my pattern.

I cut it out and decided on foam board for my skeleton.  Now I'm not a huge fan of foam board simply because of the clean-up, but for this project it really was the best option to keep the dressing lightweight and low cost.  So I made my first purchase of 4 pieces (a left and right piece for two windows) of foam board that, with my swanky 25% off purchase coupon I scored at Michael's for about $8.  Done and done!  So next was to tape and trace the foam board.

So once I cut the pattern out of the boards and then started searching for what sort of wings I could cut out that would actually go against the wall and give it depth. What I ended up using was the insides of the remaining board from the curve cut out (the portion inside the dotted lines in photo above).  Then I started "upholstering".  Even typing that just now made me laugh a little because what it involved was this-

Yeahhhhh.  So just pull that stuff taught and tape it down with some masking tape.  I would have preferred duct tape but ours went mysteriously missing.  So duct tape is for sure the best option but, as you can see, you can make do with just about any kind of tape as we're going to smooth it with the fabric we're adding in a minute. Here's a look with finished batting- don't you dare laugh...

I can't emphasize enough how unattractive looking your batting layer can be, as long as it has a smooth surface you're golden!  And finally, like adding icing to a cake, I added my fabric pulling it taught and securing with a staple gun being careful to make neat corners and keep everything super tight.

After I finished with the fabric I went back and just cut the extra off along the edges past the staples so nothing would show once it was hung. And here we are ladies and gents, our final product pre-hanging (as well as aforementioned spaniel...)  

I'll post more photos once its up and in its permanent home, but in the mean time i'll be looking for a good way to hang it.  Anyone out there have any tips or tricks?!!

DIY Vertical Garden for Under $20!

Boy o boy have I missed you blog land!  I never considered myself one of those people addicted to their technology, but after my hard drive failed in my beloved Macbook Pro and it went out of commission for weeks I now understand why they are referred to as "Crackbooks" lol.  The good news is that in the mean time I have stumbled upon some FAN-TABULOUS DIY projects that I've been documenting along the way!

While I was in my electronic exile I suddenly had all this extra time to <gasp> read!  I forgot just how much I love to read!  I went through SIX books in 4 days, one of which was the inspiration behind todays tutorial.  If you have even a single spare moment in your day pick up Jessica Alba's book "The Honest Life", you won't regret it.  It's all about simple substitutions you can make to live a bit more basically without so many of the chemicals and compounds that are not only unpronounceable but unstudied as to their effects on health (yikes!).  In the book Jessica shows off her adorable herb garden that provides her and her family with fresh organic seasonings throughout the year.  She used Florafelt Planters (3 of them!) but at $119 a pop they're not exactly economical...  Still, with yard space at a premium, I loved the idea of a vertical garden, and so began our latest DIY adventure.

Pop Quiz: What has pockets JUST like the FloraFelt planters, can hang on a fence/wall, has wonderful drainage, is made of 100% natural material, AND costs less than $15?

An over-the-door shoe caddy!

I know it sounds crazy, but think about it.  It comes with 24 pre-partitioned spaces that can each be filled with the herb/vegetable/flower of your choice and includes its own hanging equipment!  Just be sure to get the canvas variety to ensure proper drainage, I went with this one from Bed, Bath, & Beyond and it was only $13 (with one of their trusty coupons!).

 I would have been all for using the door hooks included with the caddy, however, my backyard fence was just a bit too thick for them so I used some of my trusty zip ties.  I ended up having to attach two zip ties together in order to make it around/through the fence, but once you trim off the extra bits you can hardly tell :)

So once I got my planter hung on the back fence (finished product at the end of post!), the next thing to do was fill 'er up!  The most important thing to remember when planting edibles is to start with high quality seeds/starters and soil.  For example, if you want to grow a lemon tree organically (fresh juice and zest all year? Yes please!) you should ideally start with a fresh, locally grown, organic lemon to harvest your seeds from. This gives you piece of mind that your product will be without genetic modifications and free of pesticides that can be absorbed through the soil of a non-organic plant.  Speaking of soil, you can use all of the fresh organic starters that you want, but if you plant them in a chemically treated soil they will absorb those same chemicals, so it's definitely worth the few extra dollars to pick up a good quality organic soil.  Please note that I have never grown plants before, I am simply passing along the wisdom I have gained from my own research and the good people at Two Dogs Nursery, my local organic nursery (you can find certified organic nurseries in your area by going to CCOF.org).  I in no way have a green thumb and prior to this experiment considered myself the grim reaper of flora :/  So it can be done guys! Easily in fact, and it makes all the difference in your cooking!

But I digress, back to our planter, gotta add the soil!  I went with Black Gold, the soil recommended by two dogs and have had outstanding success with it.

So I filled up each of the pockets with the potting soil and left a few empty at the bottom to hold my gardening supplies.  Then I decided to try out three different methods of planting, 1) Traditional (organic!) seeds, 2) Pre-started plants from nursery seedlings, and 3) (My personal favorite method and cheapest lol) Kitchen scraps! Below are seeds, seedlings, and scrap results pictured respectively :)

Above (from left to right) is my marjoram, purple basil, curly leaf parsley, and green onion.  Also important to note that the pockets may discolor momentarily when you water them but once they dry will go back to their canvas color (I was afraid they might stain but so far so good!).

Next up labels!  I found a pice of scrapbook paper at Michaels that was super cute and provided a good grid so that I would be able to make them as uniform as possible.  I printed off the names of my herbs onto address labels, cut them down to size, added them to my scrapbook paper and laminated those bad boys!

                       

               

BOOM BABY! Then I just added some velcro to the backs of the tags and front of pockets and I had weather resistant labels that I could change around with the seasons. So here it is, the finished project, for your viewing pleasure, my vertical spice rack.....

So there it is, a vertical planter that you gotta love for under $20!  If you have any tips or suggestions on  container gardening or gardening in general i'd love to hear any and all! This DIY project has I think given me the gardening bug! ;) 

3 (Dryer) Sheets To The Wind

Hello my lovely readers! I am back with another quick fix, this time for the laundry room.  Our laundry room has always felt a bit tricky to me just because of the amount of foot traffic it gets (you have to walk through it to get to the rest of the house) and the fact that washers and dryers are big...and bulky...and decidedly not attractive. Even if you've got the most fancy pants, top of the line set in the world, they're still big metal blocks. So what to do?  Adding a few finishing touches can make such a difference and if, like me, you have laundry supplies out on the counter, here's a fun update.  As I was perusing the local thrift store this caught my eye

Not the prettiest belle at the ball but I really liked the cutout detail and thought-if we dress up our tissue boxes, why not our dryer sheets?  So I shelled out the whopping $2, took it home and went to work. Before any beautifying was going to happen this thing needed some cleaning, so I used some of my homemade cleaner (Thanks Dr. Oz!) that is only made more effective by these adorable labels from I Heart Organizing (thanks Jen!) to remove that thrift store funk.

And now for the fun part! A nice bright glossy coat of white spray paint was all this guy needed before it was ready to go.  Here it is in its new home!

The tissue holder actually works better than the box alone, and since dryer sheets already have a good amount of stiffness to them, they stay nice and reachable as opposed to having to peel up each individual sheet.  What do you think? Any ideas for putting a little pep in the step of a lame laundry room? I'd love to hear 'em!

Get It Together (for less than $3!) Trunk Organizer

I am a sucker for packaging.  There, I've said it.  I love the idea of taking a blank canvas and turning it into something beautiful of my own.  So when I saw these two milk crates being unloaded and set aside outside a local business to be thrown away, I was more than happy to take them off their hands (with permission of course!).  They were so sturdy that I knew they could hold up to some heavy duty usage and when I put them into the back of my SUV they slipped perfectly side by side, love it when inspiration strikes!  And so I embarked on what ended up being one of the SIMPLEST projects I have ever done (even simpler than the dusting mitt hanger).  I am so thrilled with how it turned out.

First things first though, gotta gather your materials!

The beauty of this project is how much room it gives you to personalize.  Now that there are approximately 80 million bagillion different types of printed duct tape (give or take) you can turn your car organizer into something that you actually ENJOY having people see!

Next up, is to assemble your masterpiece! Like I said, I was seriously shocked at how simple this ended up being.  Normally I go into projects thinking they're going to be a breeze and two hours later, end up thinking the retail cost of the item I'm DIY'ing (that I'd initially gawked at) was way WAY too low lol. So this was a great surprise.  First is to arrange your milk crates the way you'd like them.  I have an SUV so they fit right in lengthwise but if you have a smaller car/trunk you might want to try them width-wise.  Take your zip ties and attach tiiiiightly, securing the crates together at all four corners.  And there you have it- the base of your organizer!

Now all that's left is to make it your own.  For my organizer I chose white duct tape and used one of my favorite wrapping paper patterns as an accent.  I cut the wrapping paper into strips and used clear masking tape on top to make them stick and also give the paper some durability. Then I cut out the tape across the hand holds on either side and placed my masterpiece into its new abode.  Here, my friends, is the finished product.

I love it! Every time I see it i'm happy :)  I love using it for groceries, especially for eggs and things so they aren't crushed by an ice cream container gone rogue or soda pack on a power trip.  One side of the organizer I left as-is, the other however I added a hot/cold bag that I picked up from my local 99 cent store that I can pop my frozen things into if I need to run an errand before they make it to the freezer.  And there you have it!  Quick, sweet, and super simple.  Has anyone ever had that AH-HA moment? What "why didn't I think of that" projects have you made?! I'd love to know!

A Brush With Destiny

As you may have noticed from my previous posts, I'm a big fan of the quick fix.  If something is simple and works in a jiffy I know that i'll get good use out of it.  Recently I have been trying to apply this mindset to my cleaning products as well by slowing but surely going green.  The first recipe I used was this one by Dr. Oz.  It is beyond simple and incorporates one product I will never stop using, my Palmolive Free + Clear.  The smell is heavenly, like fresh cut granny smith apples, and there are no added chemicals so it fits right in with the rest of my new green cleaners!

But I digress, as much as I am loving my new cleaners, sometimes less is more.  I had been noticing a build-up on my tables and floors from the pledge that I had been dusting with, it seemed like whenever anyone even touched my coffee table their finger prints would leave a matte impression.  Not really sure what to do I looked around at what other products I could use to dust that wouldn't leave a film.  That's when I stumbled upon this little gem at my local 99 cent store, a microfiber dusting mitt that was identical to the more expensive brands at target AND picked up every little bit of dust I tried it on in the store.  Yes...I am that girl.  As thrilled as I was with my new purchase, I didn't want it to get tossed into my cleaning supplies and lost in the shuffle so I decided to break out the ribbon and thread.

Don't you love the little pears! I found it in the clearance bin at Michaels and all I could think was, "If Jonathan Adler made ribbon, THIS is what it would look like!"and for $1 I couldn't pass it up.

Now typically I have to prepare myself mentally for sewing projects.  Because I am such a novice I have to abide by the mantra, "measure five times, cut once, tell yourself it's okay and that's why you bought the extra fabric" you get the picture.  But all this little guy needed was a quick stitch.  So I wrapped the ribbon in a U-shape along the back of the elasticized arm band portion and pinned in place.

I wanted to add the ribbon to the back end of the mitt so that I wouldn't snag my finger or ring in it when I put it on.  Also, for those of you who are similarly disinclined toward sewing, using the ribbed ribbon in combination with the lines in the elastic allowed me to get a nice and (relatively) clean stitch line even though it was done by hand.  I used white thread for this project so that the stitches would show up in the photos but you preferably want to use the same color thread as your mitt so it blends from the back.

Like I said...relatively straight :)  Now all that was left to do was hang it in its new home under the sink!

It turned out exactly how I was hoping! I love the yellow pop against the teal, plus it blends right in with my row of decorated adhesive hooks (also from the dollar store!) that you can see how I made here. Let me know what you think and if you have any quick fixes of your own up your sleeve you'd like to share! 

Clear The Chaos-A lesson in entropy

Entropy  en·tro·py (n): A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system

Full disclosure- I am a nerd.  I like science, I got my degree in it.  So most things relate somehow back to my scientific background; and no other concept hit home quite like entropy.  It is the universe's inclination toward chaos and disorder.  So, for example, if you don't put any energy to picking up your room it naturally becomes messy.  Or, in other words, order requires energy!

The question is, how?  We are so busy nowadays that we have to get the most bang for our energy buck, which will be different for everyone, but hopefully you will find this method useful :)

Today i'm going to share another simple project that I have used in my entropy fighting arsenal! A quick fix for a cluttered sink. Now for the best part, pictures! Please no judgment on just how cluttered this area has become lol, just trying to keep these posts realistic :)

So needless to say, entropy is alive and well in the Banks' household :/  BUT the fix for this crazy mess of a sink was super easy, just add a towel bar!  Any type of towel bar will do, this particular one I found NIB at a thrift store for $3.50 SCORE!  I got it home and mounted it according to the instructions and started digging in my craft closet for these small drapery clips that I bought for another project that just didn't work out (happens to us all!).  Now all that was left to do was find some cute containers!  I fell in love with these candle holders from ikea, not only because they are gorgeous but at $1.99 a pop you can't beat 'em!  I just clipped in my lovely new containers and VIOLA!

Only one little problem, look down...further...to the left...there! Not one but two not so attractive items remained.  If we didn't have such hard water and get the limescale build up on our sinks so easily, I could have left some things around the sink, but alas, we do.  So I embarked on finding a quick and easy container around the house that would fit the bill/candle holder.  Also I really try to tie up any loose ends before I move on from a project, so I wanted to dig up something quick and (of course) free.  Low and behold I find a baby shampoo container that fits perfectly!  I just poured the remaining shampoo into a jar, peeled off the label, and hit it with some goo-gone.  

Then filled it with my remaining dish soap and loaded up cute candleholder #3, below is a look at the final product~!

So there you have it, one quick, simple, DIY solution to fighting off entropy in your home!  Please share any easy fixes that have worked for you, and most of all, stay strong- keep up the fight- it is a noble battle :)

Melissa