Build your own: Nail Polish Rack

With the bathroom renovations going on, and my new vanity make up area, my goal is to be more organized. I told myself  "no more digging through tubs of nail polish! I'm going to organize my polish!"
I wanted to build something that I could keep my nail polish, and other nail items organized, but also see everything at once so I knew what colors I had. (for some reason I kept purchasing the same darn colors over and over again...reds and pinks!)
I googled the web and found a pretty neat looking rack that had instructions and seemed easy to make. See my inspiration blogger here: http://www.planepretty.com/2013/01/nail-polish-storage-diy-shelf.html

I wrote down a list of materials and off to home depot I went. Well, like most craft projects I couldn't follow everything to a T. I couldn't find 8 foot boards, so I bought 6 foot boards that were pine, and very well made. I asked the guy to cut each 6 foot board into 3- two foot boards. Well apparently he couldn't do that because the cutter takes out like a 1/8th of an inch when it cuts or something, so I told him... "well, if you can make 3 even boards out of each 6 foot board, I will be a happy camper, as long as they are EVEN....EVEN is the key here for this project. They all have to be the same!

He understood, calculated some measurements and started cutting. Well, he cut the first board, and apparently he said his calculations were "off" so he tried to fix it. To make a long story short, I had him cut the 3 6 foot boards into 3 even sections each, so a total of 9 pieces that were "even." I don't know what the exact lengths were, but I wasn't cutting it, so I didn't want to get to picky!

I took that home, and I measured out the spacing on the wall, and figured I actually only needed 7 of the boards to tweak the project how I wanted it. Because some of the boards weren't exact, I picked the 5 boards which were the most even, and those were my horizontal pieces. I picked 2 of the remaining that were about the same size, and those would be my vertical pieces.

I painted them white, and gave the project to my husband and said "screw 'em together like this picture, and hang them up" and he did. Because the vertical pieces weren't exactly the same length, I decided NOT to square the top of this project like the original poster, and I just left the top part with sides. This is why it was really key to have all the pieces even, or you are going to have trouble screwing the project together.

In the end it turned out perfect for what I needed. My husband hung it up with some framing hooks. Not entirely what I wanted, but it works, and I didn't have to do it, so I was happy.

See below for my finished project! I still haven't put nearly all of my polish on this rack. I need to go through a box of polish to fill the rack up some more, but it's done!

No Sew Valance: Finally done!

So I finally finished the curtains from hell. Actually, they weren't that bad, it took 2 hours, but I'm a very fast paced person, and 2 hours seems like eternity for me.
Anyways, I saw curtains on Esty, but for a double wide window, a valance would be about $60 for someone to make, not including the rod. So, I wanted to do it myself and gave myself a $20 budget.

I bought $10 worth of the perfect yellow and gray striped fabric from Joannes.com (they had 15 cent shipping one day), and some no sew "stitch witchery" or whatever it's called from Joannes, and I went to town. I cut and ironed, and measured and it turned out perfectly! I put it up on a rod I found on clearance for $14 at target, and it looked great.....

except when the sun shined through. My "hem" going along the bottom (which was just fabric folded inward and ironed shut) were not exact. Meaning the part I folded inside wasn't straight across. So it looked fine when I looked at it, but when the sun shined through I could see the uneven "tuck" of material, and it totally bothered me.

So... I spent another $5 on some blackout curtain liner, and pretty much did the project again to make a liner in the back to keep the light from shining through.

SO...lesson learned....if I would have just taken a little more time and cut straight, i wouldn't of had to have the liner, but oh well, it's done!! I was planning on doing another one for my daughters room, but being 9 months pregnant, and standing for 2 hours in front of a hot iron, is not my idea of a good time....
However, I am so proud of myself, and hopefully baby boy will think about how hard I worked on his curtains every time he looks at them......(yea right!)

My Favorite Recipe: SkinnyGirls Stuffed Peppers

Bethenny Frankel has an AMAZING recipe for stuffed peppers. It's part of her Skinny Girl line, so it is low in fat, and high in protein because of an amazing grain called Quinoa! You can get Quinoa at your regular grocery store in the natural foods aisle (at least at Kroger you can) or at any natural food grocery store.
This recipe is pretty simple, the only thing that stinks is it dirties up 3 cookware items, but it's well worth it, AND I make the husband do the dishes at the end, so it works out! :)

http://www.bethenny.com/2010/08/10/stuffed-peppers-recipe/

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cook for 30 minutes
Prep Time 30 minutes

• 6 peppers (cut off top and bottom and use them)
• 1 pound turkey meat
• 1 cup quinoa (cooked)
• ½ large onion
• 2 cups jarred tomato sauce
• 1.5 tsp garlic salt
• 2 tsp tabasco
• 2.5 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp fresh thyme
• 1/3 cup feta cheese
• 2 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
• Parsley for garnish

Preparation

1. Cook quinoa per directions. Add one cup grain to 2 cups water. Boil, then simmer until water is gone
2. Crumble turkey meat with wooden spoon over medium heat.
3. While turkey meat is cooking, chop the tops and bottoms of peppers into pieces and combine with chopped onion, garlic salt and tomato sauce. Saute over medium heat and add remaining ingredients except the feta and pine nuts
4. Combine the above with cooked turkey, quinoa, pine nuts and feta cheese (save a small amount of feta to sprinkle on top later on)
5. Remove the inside of the peppers. Portion the mixture into each of the peppers and place them on a baking sheet. Top with feta cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.

Bow Making 101: Fabric Bow-double layer folded

So here is my first instructions on how to make hair bows! First, I'm going to show you step by step instructions to make a double layer folded fabric bow. (I totally just made that name up, I don't know what it's ACTUALLY called, but just work with me here....)

Please note this is the FIRST time I have made this bow, and I'm taking pictures along the way, and obviously making mistakes. I'm not ashamed to admit it! :) So I don't think the final product is going to win any awards, but hopefully it will be a fun project for others, and maybe I'll get better at it!

PS. Please ignore my absolutely horrid chipped nail polish. I'm way overdue for a manicure...obviously....

Materials

• Fabric- one color or two colors. You don't need much, maybe 3 inches by 20 inches of one color (base color) and 2 inches by 8 inches of another color (top color)
• glue gun, craft glue (for this demo I'm using super glue because that is what I had, but I don't recommend super glue because it can be dangerous, hard to work with.
• white thread
• Scissors
• a hand sewing needle
• a small piece of felt
• ribbon (to wrap alligator clip) Grosgrain ribbon works well
• Alligator clip
• circle templates 2.5 inch and 1.5 inch in diameter
• Button cover kit

Step 1: using your templates, cut out (7) 2.5 inch circles with you base fabric, and (4) 1.5 inch circles with your top fabric. Cut a slit halfway through each one. (pretend there is 7 orange circles instead of 6 in the picture below

 Step 2: Fold each orange piece over into triangles by 6ths, folding it into opposite directions. It should look like a bunch of "S"'s bunched up.

 Step 3: Sew each bunch onto the small round piece of felt. (you only need to sew them on in the middle of the felt.

Step 4: Do the same with the top layer, except fold in 4th's and sew together.

Step5: Make your fabric button (see back of cover button box for instructions) and sew button onto top. (You can really use any embellishment on the top.

Step 6: To attach to the alligator clip, first cover the alligator clip with the white ribbon using your glue (it will make the flower hold onto it longer), then glue the flower to the clip!

A Bow For Every Outfit

That's my goal, to have some sort of bow that goes with everything Sophia wears. It may be far fetched, but I can at least try right? After spending countless hours on Etsy, and buying bows here and there, I developed the genious idea that I was going to make bows. It can't be too hard right?

Well, this coming Saturday I will let you know because I signed up for a bow making class. I'm hoping with this knowledge, and the JoAnn Fabrics down the street, I can make my dream come true...a bow for every outfit :)

Well, I've already developed quite a stash of bows, and I wanted to make sure I knew where they were at all times, so I wanted to make my own bow holder. Sounds simple enough right? I'd seen them online for purchase, but wanted to see if I could make one to match the nursery so I went to my Michaels and picked up the following supplies

*A wooden Plaque
*A wooden letter S
*Some Ribbon (I think I got a yard of ribbon)
*2 wooden shapes (as weights)
*Super glue/wood glue (which I already had)
*The paints we used in the nursery

It probably took me about 20 minutes. (I don't like doing many things that don't have some sort of instant satisfaction, I tend to get bored) BUT, 20 minutes later and I was done. SO, if I can do this, anyone can.

Here is the finished product! The only problem is....it doesn't fit (anywhere close) to all of Sophia's bows, so I'll have to develop some sort of rotation. The neat thing about bows is that I've ordered all of my bows on alligator clips, then I have a stash of headbands, and I can clip these bows on the headband of my choosing.

Happy Crafting!