House Warming on a Budget

My childhood BFF recently bought her first home. She is one of the most amazing people I know and I really wanted to make an extravagant wreath for her housewarming party but it fell in line with my finals; therefore, I had not a lot of time but I still wanted to do something more thoughtful than a gift card. While browsing Pinterest I ran across a moss letter hanging on a door by a burlap bow, and bam! I found what I could manage to make my friend with the time (and money) I could afford. This project cost me roughly $5 per letter and about an hour of time per letter.

Now, I have mentioned Morgan, one of my favorite bloggers, here before and I feel obligated to mention that she has done the moss letter as well and her's is fabulously from her own brain. Me, I need inspiration.

I already had this light cinnamon paint, sponge, and
random piece of bubble wrap.

The letters I found at Michael's were white so I brushed the
paint on them dryly with the sponge brush so there was
practically no dry time.

Each letter was about $3.50 and I also used a 40% off
coupon I printed from Michael's' web site.

All you have to do is use a glue gun ON LOW (I can't stress this enough, I tried using the high setting to rush getting the "P" done at the end of the night and burned the snot out of my palm) and just glue and pat, glue and pat (the moss on, that is).

I bought moss from the Dollar Tree for $1 per bag and I only used a little over a half a bag for both letters combined. I got the black satin ribbon on sale for $1.99/spool at Michael's and thought it added a bit of sophistication to the "green" nature of this project. 

I used a staple gun to staple the ribbon to the back after I tried the bow where I deemed appropriate.

"D" for BFF's last name & included
a 3M Wall Hook w/ Command Adhesive
strip for no-muss hanging and removal.

"P" next to our front door
(I still had a DIY wreath from last year up)

Viola, friends! Enjoy!

A Tweet & A Post

Hey all! I just tweeted this picture of my newspaper nails and got many requests for how I did it. I am not the pioneer of this technique at all and I'd feel bad if I took any credit for coming up with it.

I used Sally Hansen "Made You Blush" and Sally Hansen
Hard as Nails for my top coat

I am subscribed to nguerriero19 on YouTube and she is the first glance I had at this technique. Happy polishing! Oh, and check out the rest of her vids and subscribe, she's super cute and positive : )

Friday Fancies

In order to get myself more disciplined about posting I wanted to have a weekly post where I can at least check-in and let anyone out there who cares know what I'm into as of lately. If you follow me on Twitter it may not be hard to figure out so if you think I'm being redundant just, click-away...


1. Workouts
To make a long story short, I may come off as a workout fanatic and to an extent I am because I was a fat kid. I started working out in the summer between seventh and eighth grade because I decided I didn't want to be fat anymore. My main motivator was my best friend, we motivated each other because we were around the same size and wanted to be healthy. Before I started working out, the last time I had weighed myself was in sixth grade and I was over 180 pounds. The delightful thing about working out and watching what you eat is that it works... The hard part is that you can never stop (at least I can't, not with this metabolism). So I give you what has been keeping me motivated this week:


Tuesday: 40 Minute, 5 Mile Bike Ride while pulling my 2 year-old in her trailer (pulling over 55 lbs), exhausts me to the core and we make a pit-stop at the park, little does my daughter know: we take the looong way to get there!


Wednesday: My new obsession, the Tone It Up Girls! Their new workout is a killer and I'm pretty sure why it hurts to laugh! You can find more of their info and workouts on YouTube.


Thursday: No matter who else comes along, there will always be Jillian in my routine! I'm on level two of her Yoga Meltdown and will stay there until I master all the moves!

Pretty sure you can get this anywhere:
Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart

2. Beverage

Starbucks has coconut now and after trying it in a frappuccino and most recently in a cappuccino, both of which were topped with whipped cream and toasted coconut I've decided that I cannot choose between them. It just depends if I want something hot or cold.

NOTE: This is not on the "eating well" tip and clearly a splurge!

Coconut cream frappuccino

3. Etsy

Researching supplies, inspiration, and more formal graphics for MY SHOP along with more formal shipping accouterments - I can't get enough and I feel so inspired. I have a list going of what I want to implement and hope it all comes to fruition!

4. Music

I like all music, some of what I'm loving lately... 
Country - "Dirt Road Anthem" Jason Aldean (it's different, not what you hear every day). 
Rap - "6' 7'" Lil Wayne feat. Corey Gunz (explicit) & "Moment for Life" Nicki Minaj & Drake (gets my workouts pumped, inspirational). 
Alternative - "Tighten Up" The Black Keys (just plain funky).

5. Style
I've decided I need more turquoise in my wardrobe, so I've been seeking it out and bought a special little beauty to make a one of a kind piece of jewelry. I can't wait for all the elements to arrive and will be soon to share the finished product!

Beautiful ring from Jewelmint.com

Hope everyone had a great week and hope you have an even better weekend!


XO,


Stacey

Creative/Reusable Gift Wrap

One of the lovely ladies I follow, Morgan, wrote this blog post: Frugal Gift Giving about her obsession of wrapping gifts uniquely and making the appearance just as special as what is inside. I couldn't agree with her more! Along with making gifts look fun and fancy I also like to make the gift wrap reusable.

More recently I find myself staking out cute boxes, containers or reusable gift bags or shopping bags to save for a special gift to fit inside. The last gift I had the pleasure of giving was for a dear friend's baby shower...

I got K some necessities from her registry (hangers,
pacifiers, etc) along with a necklace with her child and
little one on the way's initials. The necklace is from:
Etsy: Elemental Workshop

As you can see I wrapped all the odds and ends in tissue
paper and I put the necklace on a little tag.

I created and added this bright bow for a little more
oomph as well as to hide the necklace.

I thought about myself and other moms I know, always clamoring for storage options, so I decided to find a colorful bin to put everything in. I found this rainbow hearts bin at Target on clearance and everything happened to 'just fit'. I think it turned out very cute, bright, and cheery. 

Birthday Gift

This is one of the finished products that came from all of those thrift store frames I bought. I ended up giving this to my best friend, Jill, for her 25th Birthday. It just-so-happens that Jill is purchasing her first home and plans to make one of her guest rooms into a themed Victoria's Secret "Pink" room. She said she plans on putting this piece on display there.

My trusty little sanding block.
I find I can grip these best when working on little things.
I believe it is a medium grade grit.

There she is, ready for her makeover.

I just LOVE this color!

I got cheap but cute, round push pins at Wal Mart and
painted them them the same color as the frame.

I also got poster board at Wal Mart.
I had to trim it a bit, then used E6000 to glue it in place.
*This picture was taken at night, not the best -sorry!

P.S. I will be posting my other creations shortly. One needs to be fixed and the other still needs to have accessories attached so it can be hung.

A Little Slice of [my] Life

This is my little setup on my little side of the bathroom sink (his & her sinks in the master a MUST in the next house we buy). I just set this up about a week ago and I'm proud to say it's still this organized. All of my go-to makeup and jewelry is right there so I feel so organized and so girlie getting ready in the morning. I really don't think I could be in a bad mood looking at this. 


The serving platter has been kinda just sitting around since I made it from thrift-store plates and tea cups a while back for a display at a craft fair (flop). The bowls are from a recent trip to Michael's where I picked them up for $0.49 each! I'm still obsessing about buying more of those bowls as ice cream dishes...

 Thrift store haul when I bought the supplies for the serving dish display.

 Finished serving dish display, naked.

Haul from recent Michael's visit : )

To make yourself a serving dish like I did: find various pretty saucers/plates/tea cups & attach the together with Gorilla Glue. I had to attach each piece one at a time and let it dry with a few text books pushing the pieces together for an hour before I'd attach the next piece. Apply Gorilla Glue very thinly, it expands when it bonds two things together and can cause major bubbling to occur if you use too much.

I'm really into indulging myself a bit with little things that make me happy. I have a lot going on right now so I need inspiration to break up the monotony. 

Bring on Spring

Florals, bright colors, sunshine, and Easter, I'm ready for it all. I cannot wait for spring! The first previews of spring seemed to be all around me and inspired some impromptu crafting... Enjoy!

Mother Nature:

These are neat little birds that fascinate our daughter, as well as our dogs. They stab their long, pink beaks into the ground looking for something to nosh. They're probably tearing up the next thing photographed, but they're so beautiful I almost don't care.

As I looked out into the back yard today I realized that our grass is growing back from the dead! The new baby grass is so bright green and vibrant, it really lifts my spirits just looking at it.

On to the crafting:

I went to Michael's today with a thought in my head and a gift card in my pocket. My original plan didn't come to fruition but as I was roaming the isles I found these sweet flowers amongst scrap booking supplies and I immediately knew what I'd do with them!

More sweet spring whimsies...

       

...viola!

...ta-da!

This is my first time using E-6000 on bobby-pins and ring pads. I used Gorilla Glue on the last ring pad I made something with and the adornment ended up popping off and I'm really not a fan of how GG bubbles when it dries. I didn't want to use hot glue because I don't like the strings created by it. I have used E-6000 on other crafts and I've never had a problem with it. The adornments on each bobby-pin and ring pad were on snug after about thirty minutes but I'm still going to wait over night until I wear an item. If I have an issue with anything staying glued I will post about it.

Bobby-pins with blanks and ring pads can be found on both Etsy and Ebay, just shop and compare since there are new postings on each site all the time.