Archive | September, 2012

Customizable Calendar

28 Sep IMG_2583

In the midst of my move I somehow lost my calendar. This was a bit of problem for two reasons: I now had a bunch of things to put on my schedule with school starting up and it is September so finding a 2012 calendar that didn’t look like a business planner from Staples was not easy. I did eventually find something similar to what I had in mind at Target, but then I realized that I could just make it myself and save $15.

Supplies:

Paper

Printer

Microsoft Excel

Binder rings

I had a lot of left over cardstock from the wedding place cards that I knew would work great for this project.

Using the calendar templates that are already preset into Excel, I just went through and changed the colors and font to something I liked. You could also enter the events you know of already while you are creating the document.

Once printed, I just punched holes into the top two corners and used binder rings to attach them all and also act as a way to hang it on the wall.

I filled in my family and friends birthdays and hung this in a highly visible spot in my room. This project probably took me longer than it would for others since I love to play around with fonts and colors, but if you’re looking for a way to make a calendar to your exact specifications, this is the route to go.

–Heather

Apple Crisp Sangria

25 Sep photo 5-1

I love Fall, and I love Sangria. So combining the two seemed like a great idea to me. Here’s a yummy recipe for Apple Crisp Sangria that is perfect for those chilly Fall days.

Supplies:

2 Apples

Bottle of Chardonnay

2 Cups Peach Schnapps

1/4 cup Agave or Honey

2 Oranges

1 lemon

1 lime

2 cinnamon sticks

2 slices of fresh ginger

1 bottle Club Soda

Cinnamon

Sugar

Ice

Pour the Chardonnay, Schnapps and Agave or honey into a container.

If you like your Sangria really sweet, maybe try a Riesling instead. I’m not a fan of the super sweet in my adult beverages though, so I stuck to Chardonnay and it came out great.

Quarter 1 orange…and toss it in.

Slice up your lemon and lime and throw them in too.

Time to toss in those two little baby ginger slices.


Drop your 2 cinnamon sticks in there as well. Now refrigerate. I know you want to chug this right now…but let everything sit overnight so all those great fall flavors seep into your drink.

So after you let this drink sit for at least one night, strain out your liquid and throw out all of your soaked fruits and cinnamon sticks. Pour in your club Soda and add some Ice.

Here is the fun part (besides the drinking part). Mix up a little cinnamon and a little sugar on a plate. Moisten the rim of your glass (I used an orange around the rim) and dip your glass in the mix.

Chop up your other apple and orange and drop the pieces in your new pitcher. Garnish each glass with a few apple slices and a cinnamon stick, and there you go! Now sit back, relax, and enjoy.

–Emily Jo

Quick Tip: Foaming Hand Soap

24 Sep IMG_2606

Well, we were running low on our current bottle of $5 foaming hand soap but I had an economy sized bottle of traditional liquid hand soap… what’s a girl to do? Scour the internet on how to use what I have to make what I want, of course!

Supplies:

Foaming hand soap container

Water

Liquid hand soap

Optional – essential oils for fragrance

One (almost) empty bottle of foaming soap coming right up!

One economy sized bottle of liquid soap? Check!

Fill bottle almost to the top with water first. Otherwise, the soap will foam up and create a bit of a mess.

Add soap, return the cap and shake well! Ta-dah! Foaming soap at a fraction of the cost and better for the environment.

–Heather

Sock Bun

18 Sep IMG_1884

Top knots are in! Incase you live under a rock and you have not heard of the sock bun…it’s the way everyone gets their buns to look so perfect. And yes- you use a real sock.

Supplies:
A thick sock
scissors
hair tie

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Amy might be the queen of sock buns. To show you just how easy the are, she did hers in a restaurant, with no mirror, in under 2 minutes. While I took some photos for you guys.

Step 1: Put your hair in a high ponytail 

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Step 2: Cut the toe off a thick sock. 

(don’t use an ankle sock, use a tube sock. I’ve found men’s socks work the best…just wash them first.)

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Step 3: Roll your sock

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..keep rollin’

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…until you have a doughnut!

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Step 4: Put the doughnut sock through your ponytail.

ImageStep 5: Pull your sock doughnut up to the ends of your hair and start folding your hair over the sock.

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The trickiest part of the sock bun is hiding the sock. No one wants people to know that they have a sock on their head. You’ll definitely want a mirror when you do your own (Amy is just an old pro and didn’t need one).

ImageStep 6: Tuck any lose hairs into your bun and make sure your sock is covered by your hair.

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Ta-Da!

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…And no one has to know you have a sock in your hair!

*extra tip: I use the sock bun to get my hair to have big waves. Do your sock bun on damp hair, spray with hairspray and sleep on your sock bun. The next morning, take your bun out and re-spray with hairspray and your hair will have nice waves all day!

Picture Shelf with Accessory Storage

10 Sep IMG_2576

Before I moved I realized that the tops of my furniture were loaded down with picture frames and tchotchkes. Having these things spread out and taking up so much space was really bogging me down mentally so I did a bit of research and decided to make a shelf dedicated just to displaying all of my photos of family and friends. While packing I also noticed that I had way more jewelry than I knew and figured I would wear it more often if I could see it all. Thus was born a picture shelf/jewelry display combo.

Supplies:

Lumber – I used a scrap piece of moulding and an 8′ board

Screw gun

Screw driver(yes, both)

Drill bits

Hooks – I used 80 total

Shelf brackets

Paint

Paint brush

Pencil

Level

To start I gave the piece of moulding a couple coats of gesso – basically as a primer. I wasn’t sure how was I was going to finish it at this point so I kept it simple.

While it was drying I went and picked up some hooks. Then I marked off where to pre-drill holes. The piece of moulding measured 7′-10″ which ended up being perfect for an 8′ shelf, allowing for brackets on either end that are an inch wide. After doing the math (80 hooks spread out over 94 inches) I decided to space the hooks out an inch apart, leaving 7 inches on either end.

Time for the drill! This part is obviously tedious but took surprisingly less time than I expected.

All the hooks are in and it looks a bit crazy. Everyone thought 80 hooks was overkill but those spaces fill up quicker than you may think!

Attaching the shelf to the piece of moulding took a bit of measuring and lining up. I marked off 4 spots along each to pre-drill where I wanted the screws to go to make sure they lined up evenly.

Once the shelf and moulding were attached I screwed in the wall brackets.

Using this little shelf and framed poster as inspiration, I decided to the paint the new shelf white underneath and black on the top.

Once the paint dried, I got to work on hanging this bad boy. I was home alone so I had to figure out how to do this by myself and make it even. To start, I centered the shelf on the wall and marked where one of the screws for the bracket would go. From there I was able to use my handy level app to figure out where the screws for the other brackets should be placed.

This shelf and accessory display filled up very quickly! I love having everything out and visible while still organized and neat. The project itself came together very easily – the hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry! It is also so easy to customize to fit any space and use any size scraps you may come across.

–Heather

Fine Art Serving Tray

7 Sep photo

Hi strangers. It’s been awhile, it’s so good to see you again :)

So here is a quick little project I did last night. This goes out to all our fellow art school students who have art history lining their book shelves that they’ll probably never open again.

Supplies:
Serving Tray
Magazines, books, photos
Scissors
Tape

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My Aunt gave me this serving tray awhile back, and I knew I wanted to do something fun with it, but I wasn’t sure what.  I moved into a new apartment last weekend, and I quickly remembered all of the Art History books I had collected when carrying them all up a flight of stairs.

ImageI figure…you can buy a great De Kooning print for $20, or you can buy a whole book of prints for $20 and rip pages out. So I got to ripping.

ImageYou can obviously do this with magazine pages, old photos, I was even thinking dictionary pages would be really interesting.

ImageAnd here it is! Sitting on my coffee table. I think doing something like this is a great conversation piece. Who needs coffee table books when you have coffee table art?

Kitschy Kitchen Art

5 Sep IMG_2565

So both of the Two Girls moved this past weekend and are finally settled into their new apartments! During my many trips back home to pick up what I think will be the last thing but never is, I found some old glass frames that I knew would look great with some love and craftiness. Lucky for me, my roommates are supportive of my interior design background and are happy to have me changing things up a bit.

Supplies:

Frames

Nice paper – scrapbook, craft or wall paper work really well

Tape

Scissors

ImageWhile exploring the new neighborhood, I found a paper store with a huge selection of gorgeous paper. I had initially gone in the store thinking since I had four frames I would pick out four different paper prints. I left with only one piece and the idea to cut it into four pieces – which made this project cost 1/4 what I was estimating!

ImageHere’s the print I chose, perfect for the kitchen! As you can see, one sheet was the perfect amount for four frames. I thought the paper cutter would work wonders but instead I just folded the paper in four, cut along the creases and used the old photos from the frames as a base to wrap the paper around.

ImageI laid the old photographs onto the back of the paper and folded the edges over, taping to secure.

ImageOne down, three to go!

ImageAll hung up, these definitely liven up the wall space.

ImageI love the way these came out. This paper caught my eye the second I walked in the door of the store. I have always had a bit of a love affair with bright, pop-arty style prints and such for kitchens; they bring out the vibrancy of food and cooking.

–Heather

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