Indoor Terrarium with Succulents

Many months ago, while flipping though my Better Homes & Gardens magazine I noticed an article entitled, Tips For Your At Home Terrarium (or something along those lines).  I was intrigued.  I love plants, and although I'm not great at keeping them alive, the few months they last me works with my schedule.  I do have a teeny, tiny problem though, I HAVE CATS.  Cats eat everything, well at least mine do.  No they don't clean up my floor, like the dog.  They enjoy nibbling on my plants which either makes them vomit in various areas around the house, OR (it hasn't occurred yet) but kill them.  I'm not a fan of either option, so I was excited to see that with a terrarium you put a lid on it.

The article was from the December issue of Better Homes & Gardens so I immediately ran into a problem...there are no succulents for sale in the winter.  I learned of this negativity after I had already scoured several Goodwill stores for the perfect home for my succulents.  So.....many months later......my succulents are finally in the stores and up for sale.  I was thrilled when Shawn texted me last week from Lowe's telling me of this great news.

I started with 3 little succulents.  I got the bigger rocks at the Dollar Store.  Noah loaned me his gardening tools.  The smaller pebbles are from Wal-Mart in the crafting section.  A bag of dirt.  And the terrarium home I bought at Goodwill and I'm pretty sure it's an old cookie jar.



Add some dirt to the bottom of your jar and place your succulents on top of the dirt.  When you take your plants out of the containers that they come from in the store in, make sure to gently break up the root system before you place them in the new dirt.  Cover the roots with more dirt.  Now add you larger rocks and them sprinkle the smaller pebbles to fill in the gaps.  Do this slowly so as not to get the little pebbles in the succulents.  Noah sprinkled the little pebbles for me and got a few in there.  I think I'll be okay though.

There she is...isn't she a beaut.  I have her sitting on my kitchen counter.  I water about once a week.  I'll definitely be making some more of these babies.  I always have my eye out for neat little homes I could use.  I'll share some more if I find some great ones.

Kate Anne

Button Monogram "C"

I had to make one for my mother.  Let me tell you how hard it is to get a nice picture with shiny buttons though.  It's hard!  Here is the best picture.  I think it turned out cute!

~Kate Anne~

A Giraffe Light Switch Cover

Our rainy day project.  Well, it wasn't exactly raining, but it sure was cold outside.  In search of something to occupy our time while daddy was gone this week, I pulled out our idea book.

Noah stumbled across this and his mind was set.

For the backing we used a piece of yellow foam.

4 Popsicle sticks

1 white pipe cleaner

10-12 shiny spots (could use many different items for the spots)

To secure it to the light switch cover I just used double sided tape.

Have Fun!!

Kate Anne

Button Monogram "F"

I saw this idea a few weeks ago on pinterest.

I have been collecting buttons for a very long time.  But I have never known what to do with them.

Do you know how many times I have done a Google search, "What to do with buttons?"

Many, many, many times.  But my search always come back with nothing.  Well, I should say nothing of interest to me...Until I was on pinterest and saw a picture that intrigued me.

The maker of a similar button monogram actually sews the buttons on fabric, I just hot glued mine.

It turned out great.  I got the frame with the matting at Goodwill for $2.38.  I already had the buttons, fabric and hot glue.  So this was a very cheap project.  Even if you had to buy the buttons, fabric and hot glue this would still be a project less than $10 or $12 dollars.

First I took the cardboard that came as backing of the frame.  Then I cut fabric about 1 inch larger than the cardboard.  Next I hot glued the fabric to the cardboard.  Next I went through all my buttons and found similar colors that would work nicely together.

I kept the matte on so I knew how big to make my "F".  Then I arranged my buttons before I hot glued them to be sure I was happy with the layout.  I designed my "F",  But you can find the letter you're looking for on line.  There are lots of sites that provide specific designs.

Be careful when gluing your buttons on to not put glue right in the center of you button.  Put only on sides so it does not run through the center holes in the button.  Next add it to the frame without the glass.

What do you think?  Didn't it turn out cute!?  I love it!!

DIY Coasters

These are the latest rave on the Internet of DIY projects. They are all over.  Do you need to spice up your coffee table life?  Ha ha.  For these darling coasters you'll need:

4-6 ceramic tiles

A few pages of scrap booking paper or even neat cards

Modge podge (I'll tell you how to make your own)

Elmers glue

Scissors

Polyurethane

Paint brush

1 sheet of felt

Take whatever size tile you have an measure the paper a tad bit smaller than the tile.  If you don't have modge podge you can easily make your own.  Take your elmers glue and add water to it until it becomes the consistency of honey.  Next paint on your glue to the back of you paper that you have measured for your tile.  Allow all tiles to dry before painting on the polyurethane.  Once the paper is dry use your paint brush and paint the polyurethane over the entire tile to waterproof them.  Once this step has been completed and has dried cut circles about the size of dimes and glue to the four corners of your coasters to protect your coffee table. 

These make great gifts.  Gather the tiles and tie with pretty ribbon and add a sweet note.

It would be a great idea to add family photos to personalize these.

Pretend Make-Up

I saw this a post months ago on how to make pretend make-up for little girls (or big girls if you don't like wearing make-up :) But I have a little boy and I'm sure his daddy would not approve of me making him pretend make up for Christmas.  It took me awhile to figure out who would like such a gift and then it hit me, my niece Kandra.  Sadly I don't see her often so she was not the first person I thought of but I hope
 she likes it. 

I went to the dollar store and bought three bottles of nail polish, two compacts of eye shadow, and a package of different sized brushes.

Next scrap out the eye shadow and rinse container with soap and water and dry thoroughly.

Now very slowly add the nail polish color of your choice to each little slot in the eye shadow container.  I held the brush of the nail polish over the opening while pouring so as not to let the ball from the polish fall out.

I allowed to dry over night.  And in the morning...viola!!!  A darling gift for that little lady in your life.

I picked up this darling Gap purse to hold all of the beautifying contents.

So this project cost me...

$3.00 for polishes

$2.00 for the eye shadows

$1.00 for the brushes

$1.38 for the little purse

Total $7.38.

Ideas came from here.

My Completed Living Room

After a week of hard and intense labor, well maybe not that labor intensive, but definitely thought provoking my living room is complete.  It looks ravishing.  I love it.  I wasn't sure about the color because it is a little less color than I would normally choose.  After several days of living with it though, I have decided I really like it.  I'm still on the hunt for some great fabric with that added color for some more throw pillows, but for now, it's good.  Here are the after shots I've obtained.

So I recovered the couch pillows for $12.78.  To see the before and afters of the couch click here.

I made new valances for the windows.  The fabric and ribbon cost me $4.50.  To see the curtains post go here.

And the paint cost me $7.50 from the Habitat for Humanity Restore.

Grand total $24.78.

Amazing! I love it.

Doesn't it look fantastic!  What do you think?

Stay tuned for my new project...refinishing the side table and coffee table I picked up. 

New Curtains

My living room has been a work in progress since I have been out of school.  A few days ago I made new pillows for my couch.  To see that transformation you can go here.  So today I painted the living room.  The fam and I went to the Restore and found a half full 5 gallon bucket of a very pretty and neutral paint color.  It was only $7.50.  Awesome!!  I love that place.  Now that the walls are painted I decided I could show you my beautiful curtains I've been making.  I found enough fabric to make 5 valances.  Here's all the fabric I got...

The fabric on the far left is a very soft grey.  That is what I used for the curtains.  That's the only that cost $2.50.  The middle fabric is an upholstery fabric.  I made a pillow with that one.  That cost $0.40.  And the fabric on the far right is a sheer silver fabric.  I'm thinking of making a gathered pillow.  Yea, you'll just have to see how that one turns out because I'm not sure how to explain what I'm envisioning.

Didn't they turn out nice?!  They were a little plain with just the grey so I put on a cute piece of ribbon to spice them up a bit.  The ribbon was only $1.00 a spool. 

Right now in these pictures it looks a little bland.  I'm just going to give it some time.  I'll know when I see that piece of art for the wall or fabric for the couch.  I will keep you posted.

New Pillows for the Couch

For the last several months I have been telling Shawn that I wanted to find fabric to cover the couch pillows and give them sort of a face lift.  We've had our sofa for about three years and it was handed down from Shawn's dad when we received it, so it is in no way a new couch, but it's still a good couch.  It just looks a little run down.  I thought some material would do the trick and my goodness has it.  Here are the before pictures of the couch...

And here are the after pictures...

 

Don't they look amazing.  I love them!  Are you ready for the best part?  I found almost an entire roll of fabric for only $12.38 at Goodwill. 

The material was also reversible.  Isn't it so pretty.  I'm very happy with how the pillows turned out.  I'm trying to incorporate some red into the couch but have not found the right fabric yet.  The other black and white fabric I got at The Salvation Army for $0.40.  I just recovered another throw pillow I already had.  So I'm still searching for something in red to break up the black and white.  For now though....I love the transformation.

Of course with new pillows now makes it necessary for a new paint color on the wall and new curtains.  Yea, more projects.

A Kitchen Makeover

Today Shawn and I painted the kitchen.  I love painting.  Well, I should say, I love what a difference paint makes.  Do you have a ReStore in your area?  They're awesome.  It's run by Habitat for Humanity.  People take all kinds of building supplies, paints, tiles, shutter etc. and donate leftover supplies.  Then the restore sells it for a fraction of what it would cost.  You name it, they probably have it.  Anyways, today we went looking for some paint for the kitchen and came home with this amazing mocha/gray color.  I love it.  It's such a calming color.  And with the white cabinets it makes it that much brighter.  I also got these great valances from the thrift store today.  It was actually one long valance and I cut it and made two.

Didn't these pictures turn out so cute.  I bought frame from the dollar store.  And the paper is scrap booking paper I already had.  So today's makeover on the kitchen cost $24.38.  Here's the break down:

1 gallon paint $8-

1 valance (cut into two) $2.38

6 black frames $6-

2 candles $2-

2 hurricane glasses $2-

2 bags of split peas $2-

2 bags black beans $2-

I'll get some picture up of the valances in the day light.

Open Kitchen Shelving

While browsing websites today for decorating ideas I came across an IKEA ad for open shelving. 

This picture is from IKEAs homepage.  Pretty right!!

This is my kitchen now...

First stop...Goodwill.  I found these

shevles at Goodwill brand new.

They cost me $3.38.

I painted the shelves a brilliant white.  These needed about 4 coats of paint.

I guess I should have paid a bit more attention to the directions. 

I screwed the screws too tightly and twice the heads came off.

I was so ready to quit.

After much frustration, I finally got them together correctly.

 I love it.  What do you think?

 So cute!!

DIY Piano Bench into an Ottoman

I absolutely love this ottoman, after my project is complete of course.  I bought a wingback chair awhile back and have been looking for an ottoman.  The chair is very comfortable,  but it definitely needed an ottoman.    While in search of the perfect foot stool, I had to keep in mind that the fabric of the chair is pretty loud.  I knew the footstool had to be simple.  When I saw this piano bench at Goodwill for $5.38 I knew I had found a perfect fit.

The Before....Not very attractive!!

This is going to be great storage for the remote controls and such...

After removing the fake leather covering I measured new padding.
When measuring for fabric make sure the fabric is a bit larger than
the padding.  I already had the padding on hand so that did not cost a dime.

And after....It turned out so cute.  I painted it a very bright white.
I found the fabric at Goodwill today.  It was $0.88. 
I am going to have to cut probably four inches off the legs. 
It is just a bit too tall for the chair.
I am so happy with the finished project.

~ Finished product cost $6.26 ~

Curtins from Scratch

This has been an amazing summer so far.  Since I have been blessed and was able to take the entire summer off from school I have had quite a bit of time on my hands.  Painting the house with some new vibrant colors has been on my list of things to do.  As I looked around my house all I saw was browns: beige, dark brown, light brown, taupe's and chocolate browns.  I really think colors can influence your moods.  After I got the living room painted my curtains did not do much for the brilliant yellow on the walls.  I spent quite a lot of time looking for just the right curtains to compliment the wall color. When I found ones I liked I was certainly not going to pay the prices they were asking.  Finally I decided I would make my own.  Although fabric can be quite expensive I figured it would be cheaper than I would spend on already made curtains.

First step was to pull my sewing machine out of the basement.  It's been years since I'd sewn and I was sure it'd be a bit rusty.  Low and behold, what do you think I found in my box of crafting supplies that were with my machine....beautiful fabric that matched the walls.  I was amazing.  It was fabric that I must have bought at a goodwill years ago. 

Next step was to design a simple pattern for my curtains.  It took me some time to decided what type of curtain I wanted.  I knew I didn't want anything that was frilly or feminine.  I wanted plain and simple.  I could not be happier.  This is what I ended up with.