two valentine projects

Today, my daughter Tayler released her first digital scrapbooking kits! Yay! They are so cute. I immediately headed to the website, Design House Digital, bought and downloaded one of her releases. It's called "Sweet Spark Valentines Kit" and had digital papers and elements. I couldn't wait to do something with all the cute goodness.
Here is the link to her new kits:
http://www.designhousedigital.com/tayler-mitchell

(Next time I'll have more photos for the project!)

I made two projects.

The first one was a remake (using her papers and elements) of a project I did last week with our Theme Thursday craft group.
The simple project--designed by my friend Lyla--needs just six supplies:
•themed paper (either real paper or digital paper)
•6 miniature hershey's chocolate  
•cardstock
•pretzel bag (I found mine at Joann's)
•ribbon or raffia  
•tag
•clear tape
all papers and elements from "Sweet Spark Valentines Kit"

I chose 3 of Tay's papers, sized them to 1-1/2" x 3" and cut out two of each design. Then I covered each of the 6 miniature chocolates with the paper, taping them with the clear tape to keep the paper in place.
I cut a tray out of the cardstock at 2-1/2" x 6". I scored each long edge about 3/8" in and folded up the long sides.
Place one of the chocolates into the tray and start sliding it into the pretzel bag. Once the tray is started sliding into the bag, add the other chocolates and slide the whole tray completely in the bag.
Tie the bag closed with a ribbon or raffia.
Add a tag (mine is a digital one I designed with Tay's digital elements) and you have a cute Valentine gift for friends, family, neighbors, teachers and more!

Project 1--"You're A Deer!"

The second project was quick and easy. It had about the same number of supplies--
•one fold-over tag (approximately 5" x 7")
•ribbon
•small hole punch
•paper (digital or traditional)
•clear bag (can be a sandwich bag)
•your choice of treats

I designed a digital fold-over tag with a Valentine theme and printed it out. I made sure the tag was wide enough to cover the top width of the bag.
I printed out one of the digital Valentine papers and cut it out to fit my clear bag (approximately 4" x 5"). Sizes may vary depending on the size of your clear bag.
I slipped the paper into the bag and placed the chocolates in front of the paper.
I folded over the tag and placed it over the bag (half of it in front of the clear bag and half behind), punched two holes through all layers. I threaded ribbon through the holes and tied a bow and this project was ready to go!

Project #2--"be mine, valentine"

a little nostalgia

I opened one of my folders to work on the family calendar for 2013 (I'm trying to do a little bit at a time), and found these pictures. Wow! Don't know why they were in there, but nostalgia hit me hard.

 This was probably 1990 or 1991.

When the big kids were little, Quinn and I had a rule: on Sunday afternoons, one parent had to be awake and in the same room as the kids while the other parent napped. 

This particular Sunday, I was napping in our room and Quinn was in the family room with the 2 kids. Imagine my surprise when I come out from my nap and find Tag had unzipped his fuzzy sleeper, had pulled out the pans and the flour (we hadn't put child locks on the cupboards yet, I guess) and was happily making a big mess! Quinn was stretched out on the family room couch sound asleep with little Tayler beside him.  

Cleaning up the mess was horrible I'm sure, but today, many years later I don't remember cleaning it up.  I see these pictures and just laugh. I remember that this was the sight that greeted me when I got up from my nap. I remember how much fun my little son was having mixing and pouring and dumping...

Little Vignettes

This is my dresser--Shawna and I refinished the dressers that I've had in my bedroom forever. We repainted them, distressed them and put on new knobs.

For now, two old wooden windows, a baskets for some of my bigger toiletries, artwork and a statue decorate the top of the dresser. I'm sure it will change...

In the shower room, we use an old wooden drawer for our smaller toiletries. I found a beautiful hand mirror at Goodwill. I've never had one, but have discovered I love it for putting on mascara. I use a birdcage to hold kleenex. It works surprisingly well. A pretty jar holds cotton swabs and a tin holds cotton balls. You can see to the left of the drawers a canning jar that holds lotion. I added the spout by following directions on pinterest.

In the half bath, I added a black shelf. An old picture frame (my favorite one), an apothecary jar and other accents dress up the shelf.

I also mounted on the wall an old mailbox I've had for years. It holds kleenex.

A small silver tray holds another lotion jar and a small white pitcher.

Here's a full view of the shelf, mailbox, and small tray...

On a different wall, a small shutter hook holds the hand towel. I did have a clock mounted on the wall, but it was so loud Quinn had me take it down. I just put a new picture up in its place. A small frame surrounds the outlet (a pinterest find).

Kitchen Shelves

We added rustic kitchen shelving to the blank wall in our kitchen.

I found shelf supports at IKEA and painted/distressed them. 

Quinn put up the supports (making sure they were in studs) and adjusted the boards to fit.

Old fence boards became shelves. 

The shelves hold my white dishes, vases, platters, & pitchers and is constantly changing as I find things at garage sales. I love the shelves!

The Boys' Room

We've been in Mom's house for several months now, and we're finally getting settled enough to start a little decorating. One of the first rooms I started on was the boys' room (Tanner's room).

Tanner had chosen gray, navy and blue as his colors in our other house, so we kept them here.

I created the headboards from old fence boards we brought over from our home. The boards were mounted on thin pieces of wood. They lean against the wall and the beds hold them in place.

I love the look and the blend of blues and grays we've used in the room.

The gray curtains I found at Red, White & Blue (a favorite thrift store) for $3. 

I wanted a clever way to hang them and found conduit pipe at Home Depot that I had cut to fit (had to cut it twice!). Pipe ends finished the pipe curtain rod. At first, I was going to mount the curtain rod directly into the wall using short hooks, but the metal rings on the curtain didn't have room to move. I bought longer hooks and had to have Quinn stretch open the hook so that the rod would fit. We used another fence board for mounting the hooks. It works great.

I have been collecting both "T's" and hooks for a while; waiting for the perfect project that could utilize them. Yet another fence board became the base for mounting "T's" and hooks and became a spot for Tanner to hang jackets and coats.

I saw the sailboat at Michaels and LOVED it but didn't buy it for weeks until it was 40% off AND there was a coupon for an additional 25% off. The old suitcase I found at Goodwill and even though it was expensive--$14--I just had to buy it.

I set the suitcase on a folding canvas camp chair at the end of one of the beds. I'll put spare sheets inside the suitcase. Gray flat sheets are the bed skirts for each bed.

We added a wicker couch for some seating (pictures will come) and still have several other projects to finish for this room to be complete. The photos on the wall between the bed have changed. I'll post photos of that project soon.

New Armoires

We needed tall storage upstairs in the bonus room and downstairs in the craft room. We had a lot of boxes of books and movies to unpack upstairs. I was tired of unpacked boxes cluttering up the bonus room and frustrated that all my office/craft supplies were in 3 different places. Mom and I were going to share the craft room downstairs as our joint office, and to do that, we needed storage!

I had priced built-in shelving from IKEA and the total (even with their 20% off sale) would have been over $5,000. Built in shelving from other sources would have been $10,000. Arrgh! 

I had been searching Craig's List for weeks and finally found a listing with armoires for sale.

Taryn, Monica & Karen (Hopkins) rode downtown with me to check them out. The YWCA had sold their building and was downsizing to a smaller location. They had pine armoires for sale for $25! Five were available. I bought all 5 for $120. 

Here are the armoires in our driveway.

Each armoire has a cupboard and two drawers. They were made from pine and seemed pretty sturdy. The cupboard had a hanging rod but had holes drilled for shelving.

I bought all 5 that were available!

Our friend Steve followed Quinn and I downtown the next morning to pick up the amoires in his trailer. He also cut off the overhanging edges of each armoire, so the armoires could butt up to each other.

 

Taryn and I sanded, painted and distressed each armoire. I ordered new crystal knobs on the internet for a great price. Quinn and Taryn hauled 3 upstairs to the bonus room. We went to Home Depot and had them cut shelving for us.

Two armoires were moved into the craft room. They look great! And were a great price. We've almost got them all filled!

Pantry Walk

Tonight, for our ward's Relief Society meeting, we had a pantry walk. We visited 5 pantries to gather ideas on food storage and organization.

Susan's food storage is in her insulated garage. Her husband Randy built the shelves in 4 heights (all the same widths). They are stackable and can be configured in a variety of ways.

One height of shelves fit #10 cans. Besides standard #10 canned items, they use the portable dry pack canner to can noodles and shredded potatoes and many other things their family uses regularly.

Boxed foods like cereal, crackers, cookies are stored in plastic bins on top of some of the shelves. This protects them from any bugs or mice.

Here are some of the shorter shelves for canned goods. They use juice bottles to store water. The water bottles are stored on the bottom shelf and stretch from one end of their shelves to the other end. When she's filled all the water bottles, she starts over--empties the first water bottles and refills them.

Kathy stores her food storage in a pantry closet and

in roll-out drawers in her kitchen.

Shawna's food storage is in her basement. Shelves hold bulk items and #10 cans.

Smaller staples are stored on wire shelves.

They store propane for their stoves and lanterns.

Canned meats are stored in drawers. The drawers protect the glass jars from breakage.

They keep a list of their inventory.

Wheat and beans stored in big buckets are stacked using pvc pipe as shelving equalizers that allow various sizes of buckets to sit on top of each other.

They've canned potatoes, bacon and even butter.

Craig, Shawna's husband, built boxes for their mylar water bottles. The bins below the water hold dehydrated food.

Susan regularly uses her food storage. She keeps open cans in her kitchen.

She stores all her baking supplies together in a cabinet.

The bulk of her family's food storage is in their garage. Shelves hold #10 cans, standard-size cans, and big bins of beans and more.

Other shelves hold smaller items.

Susan keeps an inventory list on her computer of the foods they have stored.

Cindy (and Quinn) are still trying to figure out how to store their food storage (they just moved). Their smaller food storage and more perishable items are stored in their kitchen pantry.

Baking supplies are stored in drawers. The are going to try to store their #10 cans and big buckets in an attic for now.

It was a great activity--it really helps to see how others do things in the space they have and to gather new ideas!