My First Giveaway!

I figured it's time for our first GIVEAWAY! Yay! 

Many blogs have sponsers who give products away for such contests, but since I have only myself, 

I made something special just for you.

I will be giving away ONE silk and  feather,

hand beaded hair clip. 

Aren't they GORGEOUS? It's one of my favorite things to make because they remind me of

little silk party dresses.

Here's how it's going to work.

You must first make sure you are a follower of my blog 

then leave a comment at this post mentioning which color you like best. Teal, or White.
The contest closes on Sunday night and I'll draw a name on Monday.

I'll announce the winner on Tuesday, July 19th.
Have fun and good luck!

Our Nursery

     Here's a peek into our nursery. When we first painted it, my goal was to keep it gender neutral so the walls are a light apple green and our main accent color is blue. We had our daughter first so the other accent color  was pink. When our son was born, we switched out the pink for orange and I put up the maps and other boyish wall art.
     These colors are pretty much throughout my entire house. I love the fresh feeling they give. I want my house to be cheerful, relaxing, and promote creativity. I also want it to be a fun place for my kids to grow up in.

Here's a list of most of the items in the pictures and where we got them.

Passed down to us or bought second hand:

Dresser cabinet, rocker, bookcase, dark brown basket, bird pictures,

lanterns, map, crochet blanket, and most of our children's books!

 Ikea purchases:

Rug, blue wall shelves, blue chair, and mobile.

 Target:

Orange baskets and polka dot pail

 Photographs on the wall:

Nelson Fotography

Pretty much everything else was given as shower gifts. 

We are so blessed to have such generous family and friends!

My First Batch of Homemade Laundry Soap

I was simply THRILLED when I found this recipe for laundry soap by  

diyNatural.
One thing I love about this recipe is that it's powdered. I could make small batches at a time 
and not store multiple gallon of the stuff in my house.

diyNatural has tons of recipes for beauty products, cleaners, food etc. 

This is the first idea of theirs I've tried. 
I don't want to be accused of stealing their recipe so please visit their site for all the details! 

You just use these simple ingredients which my husband picked up at Walmart.

(My little helper is sooooo serious!)

Ivory Soap

Washing Soda

Borax

This is very easy to make and really cheap. I'm excited I can put it in my cute little canister too! :)

J Crew Knockoff Necklace Tutorial

A couple years ago J Crew was selling these beautiful necklaces.

I loved them and figured I could make something like it. So I made this:

Well, I wanted to show you how I did it, but there were NO pearls at the craft store last time I went. That was really strange and very disappointing. I rarely get out to go shop like this so I had to make do. These pretty blue beads caught my eye and I figured I could still make a fun necklace so that's what I had to work with for these pictures. To be completely honest, I like the pearls better.

First of all you'll need this ribbon-like trim. I have no idea what it's called, but they sell it in the trim section of the fabric store and I believe this one is 100% cotton. It's very inexpensive which is a bonus. I used 2 yards for my necklace.
I also used large beads, a beading needle and beading thread that's kinda like dental floss.

I took my "ribbon" and found the middle. You want to start in the middle so you get an even number of beads on each side. I didn't do that with the black one and that's why the necklace knots at the end of the beads rather than in the back.
Then I simply knotted my thread and started to sew my beads on. The key to this necklace is to make it evenly uneven. Does that make sense? You want to alternate from one bead, to two beads, then maybe three singles, and you fold the ribbon between each section. A couple stitches with folds and maybe a twist makes for an interesting necklace. You want to look like you didn't try too hard, but you need to step back and make sure it's turning out okay.

When you finish the first side, knot your thread then knot the ribbon where the beads end.

Now go back to the center and complete the other side the same way.

That's really it. Tie the back into a bow and enjoy your new necklace!

Happy 4th of July

$36 Laundry Room Makeover

I have always loved the idea of a pretty laundry room but have never justified spending the money to do anything with mine. That is until I had the idea of doing it on the cheap. And I mean CHEAP. Those mis-tint cans of paint at home stores have always beckoned to me but I've never actually bought any. That is until now! I crossed my fingers and found a wonderful grayish green for only $5. You obviously can't be picky and I wasn't. I just wanted a neutral.

Once I found my paint I looked through my scrapbook papers for color inspiration and found these designed by Amy Butler. So my pink and blue accents were drawn from these

.
 A couple weekends ago, I found a fun set of ceramic canisters at a yard sale for $3 which hold my laundry bags, gloves, and laundry soap (labeled to avoid confusing it with any food item).

All the other storage items and a pink clipboard were from around the house either being underutilized or not used at all.

The wall art was made by me for free. I reused an old canvas of mine and the other supplies were already on hand.

I wanted to do wall hooks so I had the guy at Lowe's cut some decorative trim to fit pre-cut planks ($2.91 each). The hooks were on sale for $2.39 (originally $5.97 each) as was the trim (sale price $4.79). So these little hook projects only cost $28 for both racks. I probably could have found hooks at the dollar store, but I thought these were super pretty. They are the jewelry of my room.

My daughter and I painted and decorated an empty diaper box to hold party supplies. I borrowed this idea from another blog, but for the life of me I can't remember where I saw it.

So here are the before pictures. For your amusement, I left it in all it's messy glory!

...and after!

The grand total for my fun little makeover was only $36! I no longer need to be embarrassed to have people see it, assuming I keep it this way!

Paper Dress Art

I've been so inspired by all the adorable laundry room makeovers I've seen that I wanted to make my own laundry room a little prettier. So I came up with this quick art project to get started.
First of all I took white, gray and turquoise acrylic paint and did broad streaks across it to resemble a sky.

Then I used a few of my favorite scrapbook papers by Amy Butler to cut out dresses and some simple letters.

Using a hot glue gun, I placed twine as a clothesline and then with regular white glue attached my paper dresses and letters.

This would be really cute in a nursery too. Can't you just imagine it with the child's name and some onesies on the clothesline?
Now I'm one step closer to a cute laundry room!