Catching up.

Ah yes, the Holiday Season has begun! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving! I flew to the East Coast to spend time with family while Chris stayed in Colorado for his vegan "friendsgiving." While back East I went to my favorite antique stores and flea markets, but didn't really find anything that would fit in my carry on suitcase.

We do have this old headboard that we have no idea what to do with, so we're looking for your advice! My first throught was a bench, but we don't really need anymore seating.

What do you think?

The next project during this crazy time of year will be handmaking gifts. We're tight on funds and we'll have to travel with everything when we head home for the holidays, so it will definitely be a challenge to make gifts for everyone on our list. But, we do love a good challenge.

Guest post: Book wall art

Our dear friend Andrea made her own artwork inspired by a picture I found at a craft show. I love the idea of drawing or painting on a page from a book - it doesn't have to be an owl, you can try anything! Art definitely does not need to be expensive. Here is Andrea's project, I love how it turned out. 

Last weekend, I got a chance to visit Liz & Chris in Colorado.  Liz and I have always had similar décor tastes (my boyfriend would call our style “hipster-esque” – I blame owls & cats for being so cute!).  So while I was visiting, I got some inspiration from this cute little owl picture Liz has hanging in their bedroom.  I loved it – so I DIY’ed it!

I have had this frame that I got at a thrift store for $1.  Since it’s so unique, I’ve had trouble deciding what picture to put in it, until this project inspired me!

First, I scoured the internet for cute owl drawings.  I’m not a super great artist, so I needed a step-by-step guide which I found here. 

I practiced drawing it twice, in the 5’x7’ size I needed, putting a few different elements in each drawing.  Then, I colored both of them in differently, one with just colored pencils, and one with markers and colored pencils.

 

I liked the owl on the left better, but the markers and colored pencils in the picture on the right turned out way better. 

It was time to draw the owl for real.  I got a book at a thrift store a while ago – worst book ever.  Since I stopped reading it, I’ve been using it for DIY projects.  Using one of the pages as the paper for the owl, I drew the outline in pencil, then colored in the details with the markers and colored pencils.  Before I started, I was sure to outline the oval space I had to draw in, so that none of the owl was hidden by the frame!

After erasing the pencil marks, I put George in his frame and now he hangs on my wall!

All in all, I’m pretty happy with my little art project.  It only took about an hour, and I think anyone can create a unique picture for their wall like this!

Laundry detergent.

Hello! Happy Monday! We took a bit of a break from reality this weekend because our good friend from Philadelphia was visiting. The weekend including long brunches, site seeing and of course, thrift shopping. 

The problem with fun weekends is that Monday is a much harsher reality than usual. Especially when you have 2 weeks worth of laundry to do and are out of detergent. 

I had been wanting to try making my own for a while for a few reasons - it's cheaper, there aren't any chemicals (so it's easier on your clothes and washing machine) and it's so much better for the environment. My friend Rebecca recommended this recipe. 

You will need:

1 cup of Baking Soda 

1 cup of Super Washing Soda

1 cup of Borax 

1.5 bars of Dr. Bronners pure-castile soap (found at Whole Foods or Trader Joes)

A cheese grater

First you will need to use your cheese grater to grate the soap bar. The soap comes in several different flavors - I chose eucalyptus because it was fresh but not too fragrant. This is definitely the most time consuming step, and it's dangerous. I ended up cutting up my thumb because I was grating too hard and not paying attention. I almost re-named this blog 'DIY or Die Tryin,' but don't worry I made it out alive. But be careful during this step!

Once the soap is grated, add in the rest of the ingredients and mix it up!

Use 2 tablespoons for heavy loads and 1 for light loads, this recipe makes enough for 32-40 loads. I tested it out tonight on several loads of laundry and so far I'm very pleased. 

The upfront costs are a bit pricier than buying detergent, but it ends up being much cheaper in the end, about 20 cents per load. For people on a budget like us, this is very exciting. Which is odd, because who knew we'd ever be excited about laundry detergent, but we are (by we I mean me, although Chris was happy with is freshly washed pile of clothes)!  I guess this is growing up.

Have you ever tried making your own cleaning supplies?

Redecorating.

We'll have a project for you later this week, but for now, here is some small redecorating that we've done using vintage finds.

At an estate sale I bought a big box of fabric for a dollar. This crochet doily was in that box and fit perfectly on my dresser. I also found the glass floral decanter (on the left) and I plan to use it to store my bracelets - similar to using a wine bottle.

On our room divider/record holder from idea we have a lamp. To decorate the space we added a crochet doily and old coffee cans that we use to keep change.

Lastly, we moved the vintage slides lamp to the suitcase table and have been using one of the lace bowl for coasters. It would be cute for a remote control, but we have no TV.

Hope you enjoyed these bits of our home! I can't wait until we have more space to decorate. Someday....sigh.