I'm Back! Time for indoor fun - storage!

Hello! Long time no post. Sorry for the extra long intermission, but no fear, the creative juices are flowing. Nothing like enough sleep and lots of good food to get the brain working again.

In honor of the resolution season I wanted to share this storage project that was SO worth every minute. We completed the project this summer, but it could be fun and easy to do inside (in Oregon you need to get creative when the rain starts.)

The Project: We had a mess of baskets holding our shoes, hats, gloves, etc. Inspired by Pottery Barn-ish most-beautiful-mud-rooms-ever (see examples here) we wanted to go creative with our space.

With help from my parents and a lot of work on the hubster's part, our shoes are now super organized, visible and not smashing each other. (Trying video for the first time, hope it works...)


What we used:
Lumber - new (shhh... don't tell.)
Hooks - found at garage sale, one bag of 20 quality brass hooks for $1! We removed old paint and tape and re-painted.
Chair - from Goodwill Super Store, chopped in half and painted.
Paint: Left over from other parts of our house: white, blue, orange. The most fun was painting a faux carpet. To do it yourself you will need to paint one layer at a time, taping off each layer as you go. You will hear from me soon! As always, thanks for reading!

Huffington Post: 9 Ways to Turn Trash To Crafts

9 Ways to Turn Trash to Crafts

Check out this great article by the Huffington Post for TONS of ways to reuse "trash." My favorite is the homemade art from toilet roles on the Homemade Mamas blog - super creative. Who would ever think cardboard could look so good.

I have to thank Tori for sending me this link!

Kitchen Towels

Okay, so this post is sort-of-cheating. I reused one part of this project (the canvasses) and the rest I bought new. BUT, I am SO proud of this project, I think it turned out super cute. Maybe it will inspire some re-using...

First the supplies...


Glue....
Paint...
Done!

Spoon Herb Markers - guest appearance

To keep on the garden theme I thought I would share these ADORABLE garden markers I bought from Allison D. Cecil - creator of Monkey's Always Look.


Then, I put together this 'garden happy' present for my super crafty friend Bobbi. To complete the present I pre planted basil seeds - it is a WAY better gift to pre plant seeds then give someone seeds to plant on their own. Wouldn't you agree?

plastic now - food later

I never really believed that seeds grew into true plants until I moved to Oregon. Sure, we did the bean-that-sprouts-into-a-plant thing in school. But, growing up in Colorado (with a short growing season) seeds were a LOT of work. Now that I live in the land-of-plenty, when February rolls around and things start popping out of the ground I get real hopeful about seeds. I started some tomato, basil and pepper seeds a few weeks ago (they sit in the window above the heat register) and the tomatoes are already getting pretty big. In order to encourage their growth I re-planted them today in used sour cream and yogurt containers. Like any re-user, I cannot fathom sending any plastic container to the recycle because I figure there have got to be SO many ways to re-use them. Well, my storage drawer would beg to differ since it is overflowing with the things.

To re-plant my tomatoes I poked a hole in the bottom of the containers for water flow (the hole doesn't have to be pretty) and use the container top as a saucer-like-thingy (see below).
You can do this to plant almost anything. Grow baby, grow!

Flower decorations from bottles - guest appearance

Check out this great idea from Anthropologie about making decorative flowers from left over plastic bottles. Check it out by clicking on this link (scroll down).

Bread Machine...that. is. right.

In one of the best second-hand store finds of all time I present: THE BREAD MACHINE. For $9.99, that's right $9.99 I got a fully functional Oster brand bread machine with instructions. I tried it out last night and YES, it works! This just proves, yet again, you should always look at second-hand stores first... you never know.

By the way, bread machines are GREAT. I don't know why I didn't figure this out before, but all you have to do to make the bread is put it in the ingredients in the machine! Do you know that? That's all you have to do. Copying my friend Bobbi's always great idea - I pulled the dough out of the machine before the last 'rise' setting and baked the bread in the oven... looks like I spent hours putting it together.
Um, P.S. cheapest Oster bread machine I could find online was $69.

Christmas Cookies

You might be saying: Whaaaat??? Re-use cookies? That's right - if you haven't cleaned up all your holiday cookies I recommend freezing 'em. (Plus putting them away helps with the whole eat-less-crap resolution. Cookies tend to keep really well in the freezer (for 3-4 months, I would argue.) But, instead of just throwing them in the freezer, bag your cookies in tasty combinations which you can simply pull out and serve to friends after dinner. Yum.