Tray Talk

Mother’s Day is coming. Soon. Please tell me you didn’t forget. 

Well, even if you did forget…or well, even if you didn’t, I wanted to give you a quick crafty project to tackle just in case you hadn’t yet decided on a gift for your beloved mother. 

Here’s the skinny. Some moms are hard to shop for. You know they work so hard and do so much all year long, but when it comes to buying them something you just don’t know where to start. I think most moms oftentimes don’t feel like they actually “need” anything so you are left trying to figure out what extra special thing you can give to the woman who birthed you or brought you into her life in some way or another. Honestly I am all for handmade. I think any gift that was thoughtfully made by you shows just how much you care. It’s a great excuse to get your craft on as well…and that is never a bad thing. 

Last year I made a chalkboard tray (I know, using old craft projects as blog material seems to be a theme lately) and it is now well used by my sister from another mister, Ruby. Yes, the same Ruby who just celebrated her golden birthday. Okay, I know what you are thinking, Ruby is not my mother. This is true. However, in going through old photos of projects I had done, I came across the tray and thought it was such a great gift for anyone, especially mommies. Now, this would be the part where I show you that photo. The problem is I wasn’t so great at using my camera back then and the photos are so blurry that even I had a hard time making out (that’s what she said!) what it was. So, without further adieu, I give you a whole bunch of other people’s chalkboard trays that I found all over my beloved internet. 

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Trays can be used to write notes to the family or even to have in a guest room with some welcoming words and some toiletries or even a little snack as shown above.

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Does your mom love tea? Have a grown up tea party outside with her new tray. Oh and husbands, you aren’t getting out of this that easy. Why don’t you use those DIY skills I know you have and make your wife a chalkboard tray of her own AND THEN do something bold. Go cook her breakfast and serve it to her in bed. Stop your whining. I don’t care if you don’t know how to cook. Go watch some Food Network, do a little googling, and figure it out. Trust me, she deserves it and she will love you and your burnt toast.

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Nobody said chalkboards have to be black (or green like in elementary school). Find a chalkboard paint in your mom’s favorite color, or find one that matches her decor. Need some inspiration? Check out all of the colors that Hudson Paint carries.

 Want to really get your hands dirty and can’t find the paint color that you really desire? Make your own. Check out the oh so talented Kate from Centsational Girl’s great tutorial. 

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Not feeling the whole tray thing? Then, grab something else and paint away! Seriously, if your mom loves to cook or garden, how cute would painted chalkboard pots be? Honestly, the possibilities are endless. Just head out to your local thrift store, Target, wherever and find something that looks like it wants to be painted. 

Oh and most definitely don’t forget the chalk. Preferably some pretty colored chalk. Although, white is always nice as well.

Now, go forth my pretties and make something nice for that special mom in your life.

Operation: SIMPLIFY

As if we didn’t already know that I was crazy about living a minimalist life, I will now make it more evident by telling you about my latest project. I have kind of gone on an organizing rampage. I dislike clutter and mess and living in 830 square feet means it is vital that I find ways to organize each and every item in this house. If I even think it is okay to leave something out, it looks like a tornado actually ripped through our house…and that’s with only ONE thing sitting out. Dramatic much? Seriously though, living in tight quarters is something I love because I am all about living on less, but it means I have to be proactive in controlling messes. So, my mission is simple. Go around to each area of each room in the house and figure out a) my problem areas and b) what I can do to fix it. If there are items that we don’t need, they get tossed. I really have no mercy so you may want to stay out of our house for the next couple of weeks….I may just toss you out. Alright, not really, my guests can stay!

My first mission was the ridiculous amount of clutter that resided in a basket that lives on top of my little storage cabinet next to my desk. I originally placed it there to hold the mail before we had a chance to walk it down to Josh’s office in the basement. This quickly turned into my own dumping ground for anything that I was too lazy to put away didn’t have a home. This meant that I needed a solution…and to find a home for a large assortment of items. I was also presented with another challenge. All of my projects must cost me ZERO in moolah because I think we are permanently in a spending freeze (more on that another time). I love me a good challenge.


Right about now, if I were a good blogger, I would have taken photos of the giant mess of items that were residing in the basket. The truth is, I wasn’t comfortable with it. I know that’s not being very honest when I tell you I strive to be very open on this blog, but well…I just am not comfortable with my messes. I promise I’ll do better at showing my big giant piles of you know what during this operation of sorts, but you are just straight out of luck this time. So, instead, here are some pictures of the supplies I gathered.

I grabbed some coordinating scrapbook paper, a few purple folders that Josh had on hand, my paper cutter, and some glue. It was quite simple really.




I cut out a piece of the scrapbook paper because although the folders were already a fun color, we all know without that extra dose of “pizazz” I might as well just scrap the project altogether because I need everything to look pretty in order to motivate me to actually keep the system working. Maybe I’m just crazy.




Once I had the pretty rectangles attached to the folders, I just printed out some labels. I chose to make folders for our “problem areas” as well as one for mail for Josh and I.

We have already started using the folders and it is making a world of difference. See, my handsome hubby LOVES to drop the mail right on the t.v. console. Let’s just say this leads to a very annoyed wife on a daily basis. Without the mail there, the only thing we have sitting on the t.v. unit is a Netflix dvd that needs to be returned, Josh’s wallet, and Josh’s keys. Don’t worry, I already have a place for his wallet and keys in his nightstand….guess we just have to pick our battles (love you babe!).


The best thing about this system is I get to throw all the boring mail (i.e. bills) in Josh’s folder and throw all the fun mail (i.e. magazines and catalogs) into mine. I bet you can imagine which one of us gets excited to get the mail and who doesn’t.

So, nothing too exciting about this one. It was a super simple and completely free update that will hopefully keep our house just a little more clutter free.

I can’t end this post without mentioning a fantastic blog that I just ran across. IHeart Organizing is the most amazing thing I have ever found. It takes my favorite subject and breaks it down into all these great projects that just make me so happy. Honestly whenever I go through all of Jen’s archives my heart races a bit more. This is what I believe Heaven will be like…binders and boxes and all sorts of organizing bliss. Anyway, my plan is to follow her monthly projects to ensure I don’t lose track of my goal of a fully organized home. I feel myself breathing easier already….

Yarn Wreath Revealed

Confession. I started this wreath shortly after Eden was born. I actually got the wreath part done fairly quickly, but the flowers…well, I took a bit longer to get those done. I don’t know why, but the flowers made me quite nervous. What is funny is the fact that the flowers were SO SIMPLE. I am so glad I finished this up just in time for Spring! 

My wreath likes to flaunt all her curves. Check out this close-up shot of her. Oooh yummy. 

I forgot just how much I L.O.V.E crafting. I already have some plans to work on some more fun projects that may or may not include the flowers I finally got the courage to create. 


I am not going to do a tutorial on making this wreath since there are some great tutorials out there, check here. I will say, I am definitely glad I bought one of those wreath forms that look like hay instead of the styrofoam ones. It seemed to work really well. I kept the plastic wrap on which made it super simple. I also found that holding the wreath still and just wrapping the yarn around it made for the easiest process. 


As for the flowers, again I’ll leave it up to the other fabulous bloggers out there that made some easy to use tutorials. You can find the rosettes tutorial here and the giant flowers here. Oh and because I have commitment issues (this is why Josh proposed two months after we began dating..) I hot glued paper clips to the back of the flowers so that I could move them wherever and change them up if I so desire. Why paperclips? Because I am lazy and that is what was right next to me on my desk. 


If you need a craft to keep your hands busy, or need a gift for a friend or family member, make one of these! I am quite addicted and I am pretty sure I need to make a million. Don’t be surprised if you get one from me because we definitely don’t have room in the house to keep all of the ones I want to make.


Oh and if you want to save money here’s what you do..collect your supplies by using those handy 40% off coupons at Michaels. It may take you awhile longer to get all of your supplies, but you will surely save a few bucks which in my book is so worth it. 


Now go forth and prosper craft!  

I Did It All By Myself

Or better known as…how I surprised Josh with a big, giant mess in our master bedroom.

One day a week Josh goes into the office for a 4 hour shift. Knowing this, I decided it was time to do something all on my own. I kept it a complete secret from Josh. I crossed my fingers that Eden would take a nap so that I wouldn’t have to worry about her health and safety during this process. I got really lucky the day I decided to master a new skill.

At 1:15 in the afternoon I set out into our room with these things in hand. Yep, just ONE tool and a pair of gloves.

Want to know what my target of attack was going to be?

The final bit of carpet left in our entire house. It was the thorn in my side. Little bits of carpet and padding would fall off and I would find them tracked throughout the house. Drove me batty. On top of that our lovely extremely small bladdered dog felt the need to use this as her potty spot during the days that we were A) out of the house for a long period of time or B) it was wet outside and she didn’t want to get her paws wet. Spoiled much? Anyway, I was DESPERATE to get rid of this nastiness.

I definitely knew this was something I could do, but I still was a bit hesitant. I mean, I had NEVER ripped up carpet…well besides the day that we toured the house when we were getting ready to buy and I snuck into the closet to see if there was wood flooring underneath, THERE WAS! Hello captain obvious.

The first step was to rip up the carpet.

Next, I knew I had to get rid of that awful padding. I just pulled up and carefully maneuvered it out of the staples that were holding on for dear life.

The next step is removing all of the staples that were holding down that carpet. For some this task may be easy, for others this may be the most daunting project every. It may have you cursing, even if you have never cursed in your life. Thankfully ours fell more towards the easy side. We were quite lucky with all of the carpet in our house, whoever installed the icky carpet over the gorgeous hardwoods was at least smart enough to not do too much damage. Thank you carpet installer. I will say that some staples were particularly hard to pry out with the pliers so I would usually just move on to another one for awhile…otherwise I would get a bit persistent and would let the pliers dig into the hardwoods in order to get that staple out. I am semi very stubborn like that so it is best for me to take a break before I do permanent damage.

The next task on the list is to remove the tack strips. These are ridiculous and while they do not take much time to pull up, you can very easily damage your floors. Instead of being super woman and pulling them up, I decided to just leave it to the pro a.k.a the husband. Although I would have liked to have the entire project done before he arrived home, I decided that having damaged floors would probably make him too frustrated to realize just how great of a wife I was to pull up the carpet in the first place. See my dilemma? So, I left them knowing that he would be able to pull it up super quick and figuring he would still be thankful for the little work that was left. I was right. It took him 2 minutes and he was thankful that I didn’t attack the floors with a crowbar (that was what I planned to do). So if in doubt, let someone else do it.

Want to see the final result? No? Okay then I won’t show you. Just teasing…

See that collage of photos on the ground? That frame has been sitting there since we moved in over a year ago. It is supposed to be hanging above our clothes on that back wall. A certain someone in our house who shall remain nameless has yet to follow through on that assignment. The shorter person in the house is crossing her fingers that this post will spur him on to check it off the list. I’ll let you know if it works…

Oh that’s right…you are all curious about what is up higher. It really isn’t very pretty. I have plans to attack the closet with a paint brush and try to make it a little more organized and fun in there. I mean, who wants to pick out clothes in a bland closet? Yeah, didn’t think so. Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you…

See, I told you. And yes, Josh and I both fit our clothes into this one tiny “walk in” closet. Our nightstands are also full of undergarments and such, but other than that the closet is where it is at. We are trying to live by the “less is more” standard. Basically if it doesn’t fit in the closet then it can’t live here…okay this only applies to clothes…not children, animals, or any other living thing, just wanted to clarify. Yes, I have become quite the minimalist. Although, we do have a dresser located in our basement that does have off season items as well as all of the clothes that didn’t fit me while I was pregnant….and still don’t…another ranting for another day.

I have also been trying to keep it real on here so I am going to tell you something that I never admit. If you come over to my house and think I have everything all neat and tidy and put together all the time well you are very wrong my friend. See, I can clean with the best of them, but sometimes I just don’t have the time. Want to know my secret? Here she is…

A laundry basket. There is typically always one hiding in our closet full of stuff that I just don’t feel like putting away or don’t have the time to put in the right location. Josh loves it. Oh by the way, complete sarcasm, he can’t stand it and is always trying to get me to put everything away. My thought is…at least it’s not on the floor. In fact, my closet is always my downfall. I can keep the rest of the house spotless, but I always have one place where I feel like I need some chaos. I feel like a bit of chaos is good for my perfectionist ways. Got to keep the balance.

So all this to say, go forth and prosper! Not really. What I actually wanted to say was that I encourage you to push yourself to do something you have never done before in your home. Be courageous. Obviously I picked something that wasn’t super scary, but I am sure I could have screwed it up. Doesn’t take much for me. Even you renters can find some projects around your home that won’t do permanent damage, I am sure of it. I also want to make a full disclosure that even though I did this without Josh’s knowledge, he was fully in support of getting rid of the carpet. I would never do something that he wouldn’t be okay with. That’s just how we roll.

Obviously it is much too late for me to be awake because my jokes are just pathetic today. Who am I kidding? I should say EVERY day. Glad you all love me anyway! Oh and yes, I do realize I owe you some pretty pictures. If this post didn’t feel like a novel already I would add some, but alas it is rather long so I will make you wait. Hopefully not for long.

It’s a Lack Hack

Awhile back I was inspired to try a new project. I wish I could say I was creative enough to always think of projects on my own, but unfortunately I use the creativity of others. I am very thankful for all of those creative people out there. You have actually seen pictures of this project in previous posts, but I wanted to detail how simple and budget friendly this was.

Meet our new side table…

A similar looking Parsons side table at West Elm is available for $199. Here is a photo of what that one looks like.

There are certainly differences in the two tables, but they both share the same idea. Parsons. Parsons=yummy. Parsons has clean lines and I love clean lines. Now, there may be differences, but there is one difference that made me so happy that my hair curled (I have straight hair…well unless I use curling mousse, but that’s a story for another time).

So as I said the West Elm version was $199, but my version was a mere $15.98+a few supplies from around the house. That’s a difference of $183.02!!! So what did it take to make this masterpiece?

2 Ikea Lack Tables @ $7.99 each (you need two)
Liquid Nails
Screws and drill (optional)

Honestly you can do this project all by yourself, no help needed. This was a project that giant pregnant ladies like because it took very little effort at all.

1. Put together one Lack table fully (it’s Ikea, you always have to put something together).
2. Turn it upside down (legs in the air), place a small amount of liquid nails spread evenly over the legs
3. Take the top of the other table (white side is the one that you want to place onto the legs) and center with the legs. Press down carefully, but firmly. If any of the liquid nails squeezes out, be sure to clean up with a paper towel.

Now the next step is not necessary and you can skip it. Josh and I chose to screw the two pieces together to ensure that the table would be very sturdy. The liquid nails will work just fine, but we wanted this to outlast our little baby. To screw the two pieces together, flip the table back over and screw into the already made holes (you may want to pre-drill into the holes).

Ta-Da! You are done and now have a cheap version of a beautiful side table.

Again, I am so thankful for all those creative type. In fact, I must give credit where credit is due. Here is the blog where I originally saw this fabulous idea.

We LOVE our budget friendly side table and it was well worth the $15.98 we spent to have it. I am also thinking that there are MANY other things you can do with these simple tables. Maybe we will attempt another project in the near future…

DIYing the Nest

One of our favorite things about the holidays is decorating. We can’t wait to get our hands on those boxes that have been stored away for a year and begin to pull out all those little things that we forgot about. Now, neither of us are huge Halloween people. We like to celebrate, but when it comes to decorating we just are not into the black and orange spooky stuff. I would definitely say we prefer a more muted Fall palette with a few Halloween touches. This year my Halloween touch was coming in the form of glitter. I don’t know what it is, but this season has brought about my love for sparkly things. Sometimes I feel like a bug to a light…I just get mesmerized. I definitely got the desire to get crafty for this holiday. Currently we are trying to save for a house and we are living in a very small apartment. Buying items for the holiday was pretty much out of the question (except for a GORGEOUS candle holder that we found for a steal). Here is my attempt at craftiness…

First, I fell in L.O.V.E with these pumpkins. I knew I had to attempt to make them in my own way. There is something inside of me that refuses to do anything EXACTLY the way I see them. This is true even in recipes…I always have to add something or take something away. I guess I am just a rule-breaker like that.

(Trying to find the source for these)

This was my inspiration, but here was my interpretation…

I love his cute little face. As you can see I added some things, used new materials, and didn’t use other things. That’s the beauty of creativity, you get to interpret it however you want.

I also wanted to add some real pumpkins in with my little pumpkin guy so I got my glitter on one more time and my cute pumpkins went from this…

To this…

Hint: If you wanted to use the pumpkins from year to year, you could easily buy craft pumpkins from Michael’s and then keep them forever!

After receiving a few questions regarding this project I thought I would add some information. I chose to use Martha Stewart’s glitter (I bought the 24 pack because I love it that much!). I REALLY like her glitter. Yes you can use other glitter, but I think her’s is extra glittery and spectacular. I also used Martha’s glitter glue with a brush applicator. While I know I could have probably saved money by using a regular craft glue (one that dries clear of course) I decided I wanted to go all out and buy her special glue. Sometimes I am a sucker for things like that. It worked well in my opinion, but I am sure its just regular glue. The colors I used for the two glitter pumpkins was fire opal and onyx. For the pumpkin guy above I used carnelian.

From there I wanted to put them all together to make a tablescape. Remember that candle holder I spoke of? Well, Josh and I found that on sale at ZGallerie and we just couldn’t pass it up. I believe it was originally $17 down to $9. We were loving the color. I then searched around my house and looked through our holiday supplies for some more items to add. I found a silver plate, a napkin, and a couple of votives. In order to get a more pulled together look I also found some leaves that were lying on the ground outside of work. I snatched those right up, placed them on the silver plate and here is what we came up with…

We felt pretty good with the end result. Of course I would have liked to add more, but on a serious budget with only a few things to work with it’s a great way to add a festive look. I challenge everyone to look around their houses for items that they can incorporate. You would be amazed at what you can reuse and repurpose in a whole new way. Try it out!