New Pallet Deck and New Friends

Last week I shared that we were putting in a deck made of pallet boards to fill in a dirt patch in our backyard. You may recall the "before" image:

This week I am thrilled to share that the pallet deck is finished! It took about 2 weeks and many hours of manpower, but it is finally built, sealed, and ready to party. Observe:

I keep looking out at it and smiling. I'm just so pleased with the way my yard looks now! I can't wait to have friends over to help christen the deck, and I'm looking forward to hosting many parties this summer in our newly decked out space (pun intended). 

The building process, as I mentioned last week, was a learning experience for everyone involved. Once the boards were all laid though, I have to say I got a little misty eyed when I looked out back this past weekend to see two neighbors and a close friend joking, laughing, and working alongside my husband to seal the deck and our patio furniture. I remember reading when I was a kid about barn raising, and how all the neighbors would come together to help one family build their new barn. It felt like that. These are the people we share a driveway with, and it was great to realize just how much we've built up our friendships with them since we moved into this place almost 2 years ago. I don't think in my adult life I've ever become friends with my neighbors. At best I've counted them as acquaintances, and at worst I've found them annoying or intrusive and done my best to avoid them. This small-town style community we've become a part of feels like such a rare treasure, especially in an area that's not actually a small town, and I'm so grateful we found this place and have made it our home.

Now, when I say we're friends with our neighbors, I don't mean we're BFF's with all of them, and I don't mean that we moved in and had instant friends the next day. I can't pinpoint exactly when the friendships began to blossom, but I know it was a process. The best thing I did, personally, was open myself up to the possibility of friendship with the people around me. I think of the two kinds of neighbors I mentioned above, I've become most accustomed to the latter, and therefore had a bad taste in my mouth for forging friendly relations with the people who were geographically closest to me (I mean, hey, if they're crazy and suddenly think you're friends, it's kinda hard to steer clear of them when they know where you live). I know I've had a reputation in this neighborhood for being rather anti-social. Actually, I still have a reputation for being somewhat of a party pooper, but I also have the youngest child in the neighborhood, so I'm not feeling real apologetic for asking people to be quiet when they're having a block party under the nursery window. (You know who you are. ;-) The point is, I created that reputation for myself, and then I had to challenge it myself. I had to decide I wasn't going to be anti-social, that I was going to assume my neighbors weren't obnoxious psychopaths and actually give us an opportunity to become not just pleasant acquaintances, but friends. Once I was willing to challenge the negative lessons of my past experiences, I found I had several friends waiting for me. 

So challenging myself and my paradigms turned out to be a very good thing in this case. And now, I challenge you to challenge yourself. Reach out to a neighbor and just be open to possibility. See what happens. I'm not saying force a friendship with someone who doesn't want it, and if you get a bad vibe from the person you probably want to listen to your instinct. But if there's someone nearby you've been thinking seems like a decent human being, maybe strike up an actual conversation with them, you know, beyond the usual mindless BS about the weather and whatnot. Who knows? You may get a new friend out of the deal.

My Favorite Cleaning Solution

If you're anything like me, you might find yourself frequently on the lookout for easy, healthy, and cheap-or-free ways to manage your household. For example, cleaning. I'm not a fan of using harsh chemicals with fumes that scald my respiratory system. Some people can use those popular heavy-duty kinds of products without any issues, but I think I've just not used them for so long that now my system can't handle them. (Same with dryer sheets, actually.) For light cleanup, I often just use a rag and warm water, but for tough messes I need something stronger. 

I was watching Rehab Addict on HGTV several weeks ago and saw the host cleaning hundred-year-old tile with good ol' baking soda and vinegar, and thought, "Oh yeah, baking soda and vinegar. Forgot about that." Inspired by the show (and sudden memories of elementary school science fair projects) I filled an old empty spray bottle with white vinegar (easily found at grocery stores) and now often use it to spray down whatever I'm sanitizing or cleaning. If I need a little extra kick in my scrubbing, I just sprinkle on some baking soda. It's become my go-to cleaning solution, and I recently used it to clean up my kitchen.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

This tea kettle gets left on the stove (otherwise I won't remember to use it), and consequently gets covered in splatters from whatever I'm cooking. A spritz of vinegar, sprinkle of baking soda, and gentle rub down with a soft reusable sponge made very quick work of this formerly messy kettle. I think it took about 5 minutes total to clean at least a year's worth of cooking splatters off this thing (no judgement). Now it's so shiny I can see myself in it!
























My electric stove burner drip pans were covered in little grease splatters, but after using my baking soda and vinegar solution and wiping them down with a paper towel, they look new again! It took minimal effort and just a little over 2 minutes per drip pan. (The "before" picture doesn't really do justice to how dirty these really were.)
























Now, I will admit, the biggest drip pan didn't come out as clean as I would have liked, but to be fair it's the one that gets used the most and I'm not very good about cleaning up spills immediately. In fact, I think more times than not I've left the spill alone and just cooked right over it for a few days before bothering to clean this bad boy. Don't be like me. Do yourself a favor and clean up your spills as soon as the burner cools down, to avoid a nasty cooked-on mess like mine (and having to send your drip pan to a landfill sooner rather than later).














I've used baking soda and vinegar to clean lots of other things, like a wooden cutting board; a butcher block top on a handed-down Craigslist kitchen cart; and virtually every surface, inside and out, of my toaster oven. That last one kinda backfired, though, because I accidentally took off some of the painted numbers on the temperature dial. Oops. Silver lining: that incident inspired me to use the same solution to take sticky labels off glass jars so I can repurpose the jars for fun projects. And that's when I discovered this solution also makes an excellent nail polish remover. Who knew?

Suffice it to say, this is my favorite "heavy duty" cleaning solution (much to my vinegar-hating husband's chagrin). Now some of you who, like my husband, despise the smell of vinegar are probably thinking this sounds like a terrible way to clean because your house might end up smelling like pickles. Well, to you I say: you're probably right. I don't smell it so much, 1) because I'm in it, so I don't notice as the smell gets more intense, and 2) because I don't mind the smell of vinegar at all, so even if I catch a whiff it's not off putting. For me, this is a more appealing option than harsh chemicals. If you're looking for a gentler yet effective way to clean up stubborn messes, and you don't mind the smell of vinegar, give this a try. It may become your new favorite cleaning method!

Do you use baking soda and/or vinegar to clean your home? What do you use it for most? What other homemade cleaning solutions do you use?

DIY Baby Handprint Craft

Pretty much since the moment I brought Scoops home from the hospital, I've been pining for a keepsake handprint. We got her footprints from the hospital, and my doula made a cute footprint keepsake for us when Scoops was a few weeks old, but I wanted a handprint to remind me when she is bigger of just how tiny those little hands and fingers were when they first wrapped around my finger. I bought one of those mess-free impression kits to try to make a handprint around Christmas time, before Scoops was 2 months old. Those of you who are not new at this parenting thing are laughing at me right now. That's fine, I deserve it. For those of you who haven't had a baby yet, let me just tell you how freaking impossible it is to get a newborn to open up her hand. So I tried that impression kit, the one sold at big box stores, the one "they" encourage expecting moms to add to the baby registry. I tried a good several times, but the kit failed me. If I managed to get a decent print, it wasn't deep enough and faded away within a few minutes. Most of the times I tried it, though, Scoops just closed her fist, grabbing the material and gouging a huge chunk out of the center. I thought about trying homemade salt dough, but the benefit to the kit is that it was mess-free. I'm pretty sure that using salt dough would have resulted in a fistful of sticky mess between my kid's fingers and palm. (Plus, at 2 months postpartum, I didn't really have the energy for a salt dough project.)

So I've been waiting, semi-patiently, for the first possible opportunity to get a handprint from Scoops. I told my husband that's all I want for my first Mother's Day, actually. But recently I noticed Scoops getting a little more focused and thoughtful with her grasping technique, and I thought maybe I could use that to my advantage. I started thinking of objects she could gently grab that would allow me to get a quick handprint, and came up with the idea to have her grab a papier-mâché Easter egg. Too bad I couldn't find one, but at Easter brunch my Aunt gave me a nice, large decorative egg for this project (it's lightweight, so... foam?). Fantastic! Free craft supplies! I decided a toilet paper tube would be the perfect thing for a test run, and my test prints actually turned out better than the final product, in my opinion. 

Just like my Christmas craft from January, I created this Easter craft after the actual holiday. It's less stressful that way, and you can get supplies on sale. If you don't have a holiday coming up and you're itching for a handprint like I was, you can just use a toilet paper tube for this craft (stay with me). Here's what you'll need for this project:

• a small paintbrush (mine is about 1/2" wide)
• something in which to mix paint - e.g. a palette, carryout container or lid, clean yogurt cup, paper plate
• paint (I used acrylic - white mixed with a little gold)
• baby wipes, or damp paper towels or rags
• toilet paper tube
• decorative egg or other rounded object (optional)
• optional - drinking glass (to hold your egg while it dries)

Step 1
Pull out at least a couple baby wipes (or damp paper towels or rags) and have them ready to tackle a certain small painted hand that'll undoubtedly be heading straight for a certain small curious mouth. As a frame of reference, I ended up using 7 baby wipes.

Step 2
In your palette or other mixing container, mix up your paint a few drops at a time until you get a color you like. I ended up with about a tablespoon of paint. (If you found a color you like, you can of course use it straight out of the bottle. Just give yourself a tablespoon or so in a palette so it's easier to dip your brush.)

Step 3
Holding baby's wrist with your non-dominant hand, use the paintbrush to spread a little paint onto baby's palm. If her hand is closed, brushing a little paint at the very base of the palm will likely get those fingers to relax and open up. It's ok if baby tries to grab the brush and squishes the paint around a bit, just make sure you get paint all the way to the ends of the fingers. 

Step 3
Still holding on to baby's wrist set your paintbrush aside. Present your toilet paper tube to baby and entice her to open up her hand and grab it. You may want to try this a couple times to get a feel for how firmly your baby will grasp, and how long she'll hold her grasp before she starts to move her fingers around (I did 2 test prints, both on the same tube). If the tube is your final project, you may want to have a backup tube or 2 on hand in case you're not happy with the results of your first attempt(s).

Step 4
If you're using another object for your final project, add a little more paint to baby's hand to make sure it's well covered, then still holding on to baby's wrist present the decorative egg (or other roundish object) to baby. Once baby grasps the object, gently but immediately remove it from baby's hand. *Note: my egg was covered in a lovely metallic foil, which made it much more slippery than a cardboard toilet paper tube. The downside of this is that it was harder to get a good print before Scoops' fingers started slipping all over the thing. The upside is that it was super easy to wipe the paint off with a baby wipe and start over. 

Step 5
Once you're satisfied with your print, set it aside (I balanced my egg on top of the toilet paper tube so it wouldn't roll around, but you could use a drinking glass if you want something more sturdy) and wipe baby's hand thoroughly with the baby wipe. When you don't see any more paint on baby's hand, head to the sink to wash off any residue that you might have missed. 

Step 6
When the paint is dry, you can personalize your project even further by using a permanent marker, or extra paint if you're artistically inclined, to add baby's name and the date or occasion to the back of your object. If the toilet paper tube is your final project, you can use scissors to cut a line up the back of the tube, flatten the tube into a rectangle, and then cut out the print you want to keep. Paste the cut out print onto decorative paper or card stock and frame it, add it to a shadow box, or put it in a scrapbook.

A few tips to make this project less of a headache:

I guess I should mention that I had Scoops in her high chair for this, and used the kitchen table to hold all my supplies. I honestly can't think of a better way to do this project. You really probably want your kid strapped into a chair that's at a reasonable height for you to stand next to, and near a table or other work surface.

If you have someone to help you with this either by handing you items as you need them or holding baby's paint-covered hand for you, that's ideal. I did this on my own, so it can be done, but it would have been much easier if I'd had another adult helping me! 

I highly recommend removing baby's clothes and having her wear a large bib you don't care about ruining. You probably want to wear clothes you don't care about as well.

Protect your work area with old towels, a drop-cloth, or newspaper, or do this project outside. (Honestly, I skipped this step, but that's because I'm incredibly impatient and kinda DGAF. I did at least lay down a paper towel on which to set my damp, painty supplies.) You may also want to do this near a sink, or have a bowl of clean water nearby to wash up baby and yourself immediately after.

Don't try this with a baby that hasn't been working on grasping much yet. Scoops is just under 6 months old, and I really don't think we could have pulled this off any sooner.

Let go of the illusion that this might come out perfectly. I don't know where those clever marketing people at Pearhead got their images, but I'm guessing it's either Photoshop or witchcraft. You'll get a handprint, and it'll likely be smudgy and imperfect. Accept and love that. I had a near-perfect print the first time, but decided it wasn't perfect enough and ended up causing myself and Scoops major frustration by wiping it off and trying another 5 times before I got a print that was almost as good as the first one.

If you try this project, let me know how it went! I'd love to read your stories (successful or otherwise) in the comments and see photos if you'd like to share!

Baby's First Easter: Basket Ideas

Easter is almost here, and Scoops will be just shy of 6 months old when the fluffy patron saint of pastel candy makes his rounds. I wasn't going to make her an Easter basket, but then I found some cute miniature Dr. Seuss books in the dollar bin at Target and decided, meh, what the heck. (Side note: I also almost didn't give her any Christmas gifts since she was only a little over 2 months old then and I knew she wouldn't be able to unwrap anything or know what was going on. What was I thinking? I ended up feeling compelled to buy her some books and a few small toys, and now she loves them! Duh, mommy. The gifts will be there for her to play with when she's ready in a couple months! And books are pretty much never a bad idea.) I also found a cute pair of sunglasses, which I figured were necessary since the sun is often out now and Scoops' head is too frickin' tiny to properly support most brimmed hats for her age group. (Seriously, she's in, like, the first percentile for head circumference. It's daddy's fault, he has a tiny head, too. But hey, I'm not complaining!) Admittedly, I already used the sunglasses for her first beach day last weekend, but since she's not going to know the difference, I'm still planning to put them in her Easter basket. 

I figured I should probably look for ideas to add a few more items to the basket, and thought I'd share my findings with you. Here is a little round up of 5 Easter basket ideas from around the Web. I'm pulling a little inspiration from all of these!

These charming items suggested by Sara at Running from the Law would make a chic Easter basket for a new baby. She also has an inspiration board for an equally cute toddler Easter basket.

I like the no-fuss simplicity of this basket from Sierra and Faith over at Winks and Eyerolls. Practical items, but fun as well. (This is actually the same basket I'll be using for Scoops!)

This sweet pink basket from Jenny at Richly Blessed is honestly a little too frilly and full for my taste, personally, but I love some of the items she's included. I'm particularly fond of the Pat the Bunny book. If I could find my copy that was given to me as a baby, I'd put that in Scoops' basket for sure!

I love all the non-candy items Julie, from the girl in the red shoes, used in this adorable basket. Sensible items, like a sippy cup and socks, and fun stuff, like bubbles and a plush toy, strike a nice balance here.

And lastly, this super chic shopping guide from Kate at The Shopping Mama is simply beautiful. I like that she's also listed the approximate price of each item included, so you can plainly see how easy it is to put together a $100+ Easter basket! ;-)

I did feel inspired to get a pretty wooden toy like the ones shown in Kate's list, and found this Baby Car from Plan Toys at a local shop (shout out to Granola Babies!). It was $15, but it's the only "expensive" thing I'm putting in the basket. I'm also adding a plush bunny, as a few of the inspiration baskets above have, that a Great Aunt of mine gifted me at my baby shower. Scoops hasn't played with it yet since she's pretty easily entertained by the same few toys right now, so I think this is the perfect time to introduce it to her. I'm using a basket that's been lying around the house not being used, and I'll decorate it with paper "grass" and ribbon saved from previous projects and gifts received in the past (I save almost all packaging from gifts I've been given - everything can be used at least twice!). Here's what I've got to work with, about a $25 total investment after sales tax:

Turns out those cute little books are actually blank notebooks (way to read the packaging, mama), so I think I'll wait to give them to Scoops until she can effectively wield a crayon. Hey, maybe Grandma will buy a Pat the Bunny book I can throw in there instead. :-) Even without a book, this sweet little basket will have 3 nice gifts inside it. Easter shouldn't rival Christmas in terms of gifts, in my opinion. I'm just happy to mark the special occasion of my sweet Scoops' first Easter with a cheerful little set of small gifts for her.

UPDATE: Click here to see the finished product!

Are you putting together an Easter basket for your little one? How old will she or he be this Easter? What items are you including in the basket?

Cheap, Easy Wall Art

If you spend about 15 minutes talking with me, you'll probably learn that I have a slight addiction to two stores: Ikea, and Trader Joe's. If you live in an area that doesn't have either of those, I feel for you. Especially if you don't have Trader Joe's (sorry, Montana). One of my favorite Trader Joe's products is not actually not a food item, but their 99 cent greeting cards. The cards are very artful and often printed on nice, heavy weight cardstock. I started collecting them years ago, stocking up on favorite designs once I realized they don't stock 'em indefinitely, and now I've got a healthy stash ready to go whenever a birthday, baby shower, wedding, or graduation comes up. When I was pregnant, I found a card that fit perfectly with the nursery decor and decided to frame it. 

I used the Ikea VIRSERUM frame (see note above about my minor Ikea addiction), which cost only about $5. Obviously, though, you could use any frame that fits a 5x7 inch card. I did the same for a couple of other cards with quotes I love, and colors and design that coordinate well with the rest of my home, and incorporated them as part of a large display of family photos. Check it out:

The frame with the butterfly card is from Target, and it used to be black. Rather than buy a new frame, I just spray painted it white to better match the rest of my frames. All of the "art pieces" in these frames are simple greeting cards from Trader Joe's.

I realize it's pretty self explanatory, but in case you like specific directions, here is how I put these together.

Find a card you like, preferably one that coordinates with your home decor, and makes you happy with a fetching image and/or inspiring quote. Then, find a frame that fits the card. Could have a mat, doesn't have to. If it doesn't have a mat, just pop your card in the frame and be done. Simple. If it has a mat, you'll want to grab some tape and a letter opener or flathead screwdriver, and follow these instructions. 

Remove the backing from your frame. Ikea frames don't have those fancy little screw tab things to hold the backing in, just tiny metal tabs that you have to bend 90 degrees upright in order to get the backing out. Do yourself a favor, folks: don't fu screw up your manicure on a $5 frame. Put that letter opener or flathead screwdriver to use and pry those puppies up.

Next, tear off a piece of tape, about an inch will do, and attach it to the back of your card at the top, sticky side up, extending about halfway off the edge of the card. Do the same at the bottom of the card. (Note: I did this on the very back of the card, but it may actually be a little easier to do this on the inside of the front flap of the card, so the tape is only covering one layer of cardstock rather than two.)

Lay your card face up on a table or other sturdy surface, and position your mat over the card until it lines up exactly where you want it. Press your mat down and massage that thing right into the sticky tape, top and bottom.

Put the mat, with the card now taped to it, back into the frame, and double check that the tape is secure. Trust me, you don't want to hang this on the wall and have to take it off later because the picture slipped, all because you got lazy about the tape. Don't question me, just tape it.

Put the backing back into the frame, push the tabs back over the backing, and bam: beautiful, cheap wall art. Use it to decorate your office, home, or man cave. Impress your friends with your creativity, frugality, and amazing taste, you classy person, you. Better yet, go the free route and frame a card someone wrote in and gave to you already. Chalk it up to your sentimental side (I won't tell what a cheapskate you really are.) Try it out and share your creations in the comments!

Hanging Basket Storage Solution

My home was built in the mid 1960's and is full of quirks. Like, for example, the upstairs linen cabinet that is as deep as my arm. Seriously, it's uselessly deep. Things that get stored in the back are practically lost forever, because it's such a hassle to remove stuff from the front in order to get things out from the back. I realized a while ago that I was going to have to start utilizing the inside of the cabinet doors in order to properly maximize the space in the linen cabinet. In my pregnant nesting phase, I managed to get two wire baskets mounted to the inside of one door, and they have been incredibly useful for storing oft-needed things like washcloths, hair towels (old T-shirts), and hand towels. 

Disclaimer: it doesn't always look this good. My mom was entertaining Scoops when I took this picture, so I had time to take everything out and fold it neatly before putting it all back.

I mounted the baskets simply by hanging them from plastic adhesive hooks. I can't really give a proper tutorial for mounting this kind of system, because, like my cup hook drain cover storage idea, I just eyeballed it. I hung the bottom basket from the hooks and held it as low as I could without hitting the shelf below it, then stuck the hooks in place on the inside of the cabinet door. Same thing for the top basket, I just tried to make sure it wasn't going to hit the shelf above it. I don't have the patience to measure these kinds of things out properly before installing them, so I just kind of guess. The nice thing with these baskets is that the width between the spokes (?) is generous enough to allow for some discrepancies even if you do choose to actually measure this out (and especially if you don't).

Some things to keep in mind when installing a system like this:

1. When you hang baskets on the inside of your door, you make your door thicker. This means if you have two doors on your cabinet (like mine) you might have to open them both at the same time in order to open the one with the baskets on it. If I don't open my left cabinet door first, then when I open the right (the one with the baskets on it) the baskets tend to smack into the edge of the closed left side door. Sometimes they pop the closed door open, sometimes it just looks like they might try to jump off the hooks. It makes for a less-than-perfect system, but it's still better than digging through a too-deep cabinet!

2. These baskets are tapered (smaller on the bottom, wider at the top), so they hang on an angle. If you don't want your baskets to hang on an angle and would prefer the bottom of your baskets be parallel with the floor, don't use tapered baskets.

3. Since these two baskets are hung so close together (necessary because of the shelves above and below them inside the cabinet) I sometimes need to remove the top one in order to get to the bottom one. This is not a hassle, as the baskets lift off the hooks easily and just as easily can be set back on them.

I purchased all of my materials (baskets and hooks) for this storage solution from Bed Bath & Beyond. I will shamelessly admit that I used a 20% off coupon for probably each item I bought, because they send those things out so frequently I've managed to accrue an enviable collection. (Did you know those coupons don't actually expire? They never do! I've used coupons from 2006 with no hassle!) The baskets were about $6 each, and the hooks were about $3 per pair, so after taxes and without coupons I still put this whole thing together for less than $20. With the coupons, it was about $15. Unfortunately I can't seem to find these particular baskets anywhere on the Bed Bath & Beyond website now, but they do have them in-store (see photo). If you're looking to buy online or just from another retailer, the ALGOT wire basket from Ikea is very similar in structure and price, and these freezer storage baskets from The Container Store appear to be exactly the same as the ones I used.

Have you used hanging baskets to organize your home? What do you store in them? In which areas of your home do you find them most useful? What about just general door mounted storage? What kinds of organization projects like this have you had success with? Share your stories and tips in the comments!

And now, a word about cup hooks.

When you were growing up, did your grandmother have her tea cups or mugs neatly hung from little hooks on the inside of a kitchen cabinet? Mine neither, she wasn't that organized, but I saw other kids' grandmothers' kitchens, and they had cups hanging from cup hooks. I'm pretty sure that's how I developed the opinion that cup hooks are for old ladies, and people who have tea cups. Imagine my surprise when a little light bulb illuminated in my brain (doesn't happen often these days!) and I realized cup hooks aren't just for cups. Or grandmothers, for that matter.

I was searching for ways to organize the top of my kitchen sink. Between a few different scrub brushes and sponges for various kitchen cleaning tasks, the sink area was getting crowded. I'm not a fan of storing wet sponges under the sink (because mold, ew), so I started looking at what other sink items I could stash. That sad, lonely, hardly used (read: often dry) drain stopper caught my eye, and after a little musing I realized adhesive cup hooks on the inside of the sink cabinet would hold it up nicely. Observe Figure 1:

Fig. 1: Assembled cup hook drain cover storage.

 

Now I'm not the most patient person in the world, which means I don't typically have the patience for measuring and stuff. So to get this little system attached, I simply slid the cup hooks onto the drain cover, held the whole arrangement where I wanted it to make sure it would fit, and then removed the backing from the adhesive cup hooks and pressed both into place while they held the drain cover. I wasn't sure it would work, honestly, but it did so WOOT! Here is what the attached cup hooks look like when they're not holding the drain cover:


I got so excited by The Great Cup Hook Success that I started trying to find other ways to use these handy little guys. I had been keeping a rubber lid opener on a shelf above the kitchen sink to remove the expertly attached lid from my husband's coffee mug when he brings it back after a day at work (seriously, if the mug was used to store Kryptonite, Superman could carry it around without care after my husband put the lid on). I never liked having the grippy thingy on a shelf, but it was better than fishing around in a drawer for it after my hands were already wet from washing dishes. Cup hook to the rescue! Observe Figure 2:

Fig. 2: Ugly-but-useful rubber lid opener ON A CUP HOOK!

I just used a regular hole-punch to add a hole to hang the lid opener from the hook. Not the most beautiful solution, but very effective. Someday I might get a cuter lid opener, but for now this works!

And to the left you will see the adhesive cup hooks I used (or what's left of them).

Once upon a time I used screw-in white coated metal cup hooks to add storage for keys to a large letter sorter (which has since been repurposed as a wall-mounted library in the nursery). I plan to use those prettier cup hooks for other projects, like hanging my measuring cups and spoons inside my baking cabinet, and hanging my dish brush and bottle brush above the sink. Those projects will have to wait until I can find that box of remaining cup hooks. I know it exists somewhere in my garage, and I refuse to buy new cup hooks just because I can't figure out where the hell my husband put the ones we already have.

Have you used cup hooks to organize your home? How so? Do you prefer adhesive or screw-in? Share your stories in the comments!

Easy Alternative Dog Bed

Last week I talked about my dog and how my feelings towards him changed so much once Scoops arrived. This week I'd like to share a simple solution (I can't really call it a project) that I implemented to give him a cozy new bed and help me regain some sanity, and feel a little less resentful.

When we brought Opie home from the pound 13 months ago, we needed a makeshift bed for him. We weren't certain which dog we would be adopting, so we didn't buy a dog bed ahead of time. We brought out a huge (I'd guess about 5' x 7') old fleece blanket that my husband had grown up with (and, incidentally, that his one and only childhood dog had birthed her puppies on). Given it's age alone, the thing wasn't in great condition, but Opie didn't care. He ran up to meet it as we brought it towards him and wrapped him in it. He knew it was for him and snuggled right down into it. Great! Except that it was literally about 8 times bigger than a blanket should be for a roughly 10 pound chihuahua mix.

At first it was cute to see that little dog wrapped up in his ridiculously oversized blanket. But as Opie got more and more comfortable, and began "nesting" more and more in his bed, the blanket began to spread into our tiny space. I decided it wasn't a big deal, and just kept repositioning the blanket, swirling it back into a neat little nest several times a day. Opie would sometimes get up to walk away from his bed and accidentally drag the whole blanket with him. It often ended up parked right next to our front door, or in our kitchen. Eventually, the binding on the edges began to wear off, and Opie started getting his head through the sizeable rips and wearing the blanket like a cape. So regal. I figured that just wasn't safe, but "someone" still didn't want to get rid of his childhood blanket, so I just cut the torn bits of seam binding off. 

I also purchased a charming little fabric dog igloo, one that coordinated much better with our living room decor than did this big brown blankie with a tiger face on it (oh yes, one of those), for Opie shortly after he joined our family. Opie decided the igloo was a throne instead, and would mash the top of it down until he could sit on it, and then ultimately pushed it out of the way so he could just use the blankie. He really wasn't a fan of the igloo.

We ended up burying it under the blanket, and eventually tossed it out when it collected more hair and dander than I or the washing machine could remove, and it was obvious Opie was never going to use it as was intended.

After Scoops came home, and after the initial postpartum high had worn off (seriously, when we brought her home I was laughing about how filthy the house was - crazy hormones), I began to feel very annoyed with the gigantic blanket taking over my entire small downstairs. So we set out to find a nice, comfy, stylish pet bed for Opes MaGopes. After a little searching through HomeGoods, and much poo-pooing of the available pet beds there (they were all so ugly!), my husband discovered a charming little woven rush basket for about $8 in the home organization section. It looked like it was meant to hold magazines or papers, but we knew it would easily hold our dog. We took it home and put a thrifted fleece baby blanket in it, but it wasn't quite soft enough. My husband had some foam packaging lying around, so I wrapped that up in another thrifted baby blanket (or maybe it was the one we took home from the hospital, but I'll never tell), put the thicker fleece baby blanket on top, and BOOM. Opes was comfy. He loved it, and still does. I think he likes how small it is, because it feels cozier to him. I love it because his bed stays confined to his own little corner of the living room (mostly - he still drags the new blanket around like a cape sometimes) and the stylish little basket actually looks nice in my living room. 

Materials used: thrifted baby blanket, woven rush letter basket, and packing foam sheet.

"Oh where, oh where has my fave blankie gone?"

In the photo above you can see I've substituted an old bath towel (which I'm suddenly thinking I may keep on as the primary because I like the color better) in place of Opie's regular blankie while it's in the wash. As I wrote this post, I discovered a new colony of monstrous fleas on him and had to wash eh-ver-y-thing before I could finish writing. Good times!

So there you have it. We got creative with materials and used our resources to save money and find an aesthetically pleasing compromise. The dog is happy, I'm happy, and that means daddy is happy. Everybody wins. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go clean dog poop off the stairs again.

Easy Entryway Solution

 I don't know about you, but my home isn't exactly sprawling, and doesn't exactly have a formal entry. My husband works at a very dirty job all day every weekday, and when he gets home I really like him to have a dedicated space to sit down to take off his filthy boots before he tracks all manner of grossness through the house. This is not because I've probably recently cleaned and don't want him to mess it up, but because I never have time or energy to clean and don't want him to add to the dirty atrocity that is our floor. 

A while ago I was on the hunt for the perfect shelf and hook system to fit the small space of wall by our front door, so that we would have a place to hang keys and other items. I finally found one at HomeGoods, probably for less than $20 (although I can't remember exactly) because I'm sure I wouldn't have budgeted more than that for some hooks on a shelf. It really isn't perfect, because the hooks used to hang it to the wall are those little triangular hinged picture hangers, and they're down far enough on the back of this shelf to cause the whole thing to tilt slightly forward when it's hung on the wall. Quality craftsmanship right there, but it was cheap and coordinates well with the other stuff in my home. I threw an oversized basket (stolen from my mother - ok, I didn't steal it, she was getting rid of it anyway) under the shelf to corral shoes, which is what the basket has been doing for years at my mom's house. 

Before: No seating. :(

It's been working this way for over a year, but there never has been a proper place for my husband, or anyone else, to sit down and remove his shoes. An old leather armchair (another hand-me-down!) on the other side of the front door has served this purpose and become increasingly filthy after being caressed repeatedly by my husband's work pants. So I began The Hunt for the Perfect Small-Entryway Bench. Let me tell you, there aren't a lot of affordable options out there. You might think that looking for a smaller item to fill a small space would mean a smaller price tag. You would be right, relative to the cost of larger things, but not relative to the cost of my unreasonably low budget. I scoured the internet for tutorials on easy DIY entry benches, but didn't find anything I felt I could effectively build by myself in an afternoon. Are you wondering why I didn't just ask my husband to build me one? You must not be married.

The hunt continued and I finally started to give up on finding the perfect bench, which in my case does not mean I abandoned the idea of seating in general, but started to get creative about considering alternatives. Instead of a bench, I thought, why not a chair? Well, then the possibilities widened considerably. There are far more cheap chairs out there than benches. But if we're going for cheap we might as well look for free, right? And I happened to have a pair of nice, wooden, very free folding chairs standing in my garage. BAM. Problem solved.

After: Free chair! :D

Is it perfect? No way. Was it free. Heck YES.

You may have surmised by now (if you've been following my posts) that I'm all about a broader learning experience when I tell my stories. This experience was a great reminder for me to be creative, utilize my resources, and ultimately be content with what I have. I don't need the most beautiful entryway ever. I don't need an expensive storage bench for seating and shoes. I had a free basket, and a free chair (and a $20 shelf). My entryway is functional, pleasing to my eye (which is the only eye that really needs to be pleased by it), and didn't put me in debt. What more could I ask for?

What about you? Have you completed any projects like this using hand-me-downs or garage sale finds? Share your photos in the comments!