Christmas Galore Link Party

Thanksgiving is over and it's time to start pulling out the Christmas decor and getting serious about the upcoming holiday. I thought it would be fun to host a Christmas link party so that we could all share ideas about decor, holiday goodies, gifts, and everything else that comes with this wonderful holiday.

*Cue Holiday music*

There are 2 categories to add your links to: Christmas Gift Ideas (for gift ideas - handmade or otherwise) and Christmas Galore (for everything else - decor, yumminess, parties, etc). Please be sure to link up to the appropriate category.

Just a few suggestions before joining the party...

1. We'd love it if you would be a LITM follower. You can join us through GFC, Facebook, Feedburner, or Pinterest!
2. We'd also really appreciate it if you would link back to us so that others can join the fun too. If you really loved us, you'd grab one of the awesome buttons from the sidebar :)
3. Remember to link to your specific post and not just to your blog. And please, no etsy shops or giveaways. However, Pinterest boards are permitted :)

Now, it's party time. Go on and get down with your bad self. (Could I be any whiter??)


Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas Galore

Fall Subway Art Printable!

Remember the Halloween Subway Art Printable that I posted a few weeks ago? Well, I had so much fun making it, that I thought it would be fun to do an Autumn/Fall Subway Art Printable too!

And here it is in all it's glory! Again, with this one you can print it on an 8.5x11 paper and then either put it in an 8.5x11 document frame or trim it down to fit in an 8x10 frame. Just for reference, it's pictured belown in an 8x10 frame.

You can click either picture above to download the PDF or download it from Google Docs.




Thanks to all the fabulous bloggers out there who take the time and effort to host these spectacular parties!! We're linking up here:


Mondays:
Just Something I Whipped Up, Craftastic Monday, Turquoise Lovin', Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Mondays Marvelous, Creative Me Mondays, Made By You Mondays, Craft-O-Maniac Monday, Made with Love, More the Merrier


Tuesdays:
Get You Craft On, Tuesday Confessional, Who's Got Glam, Ta-Da Tuesdays, Tip Me Tuesdays, Take a Look Tuesdays, Show Me What You Got, Tuesday Tutorials, Too Cute Tuesdays, Craft & Tell, Tutorials & Tips Tuesday


Wednesdays:
Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednesday, What I Made Wednesday, DIY Under $5, Woot Woot Wednesday, Wow Me Wednesday, Your Whims Wednesday, Lil' Luna Link Party, Hoo's Got Talent, We Can Do it Cheaper, Look What I Made, What I Whipped up Wednesday, Wow Me Wednesday


Thursdays:
Strut Your Stuff, DIY Diva Thursdays, Hookin' Up With House of Hepworths, Get Your Brag On


Fridays:
Frugal Friday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, PityParty, Look At Me, Show & Share, Fantabulous Friday, Tickled Pink Fridays, I'm Lovin' It


Saturdays/Sundays:
Lovely Little Linkup, Weekend Wander, Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase Party, Think Pink Sundays, Anything Goes, Whatcha Got Weekend, Free For All

Framed Fall Letters

Part of the reason I wanted the entryway shelf that I posted about last week is because I want something to decorate. I don't have a mantle or a porch and our entertainment center is just too crowded with the stereo system and the overflowing DVDs.

So now that my shelf is up, I decided it needs to be a little more festive.

It's not a very big shelf, so there isn't a lot of room, but I still think it's cute! And those framed letters were super easy to make. Or at least they would have been if I weren't so indecisive!

The frames are just a 4x6 size - each of them are different and from the D.I. You can't beat $0.50 for a frame, especially since I just painted over them.

I picked 4 fall colors (I used a brown, green, cream, and wine), picked some paper (the hardest part) and them cut out the letters with my Silhouette (the most frustrating part). I think I changed my mind 10 times about the paper I was going to use. Even now, I'm not completely in love with it. I'm sure if I were to scour the racks at the craft store I could find something I LOVED. But I'm trying to be cheap and just use what I have on hand. It's growing on me though.

The inspiration for these letters came from this picture which I found through pinterest and then posted about here a couple weeks ago.

I think I'm going to do something a little more Halloweeny, or at least pumpkinish for the entertainment center. Be sure to check back and see what I come up with!




Thanks to all the fabulous bloggers out there who take the time and effort to host these spectacular parties!! We're linking up here:


Mondays:
Just Something I Whipped Up, Craftastic Monday, Turquoise Lovin', Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Mondays Marvelous, Creative Me Mondays

Tuesdays:
Get Your Craft On, Tuesday Confessional, Who's Got Glam, Ta-Da Tuesdays, Tip Me Tuesdays, Take a Look Tuesdays, Show Me What You Got

Wednesdays:
Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednesday, What I Made Wednesday, DIY Under $5, Woot Woot Wednesday, Wow Me Wednesday, Your Whims Wednesday, Lil' Luna Link Party, Hoo's Got Talent

Thursdays:
Strut Your Stuff, DIY Diva Thursdays, Hookin' Up With House of Hepworths, Get Your Brag On

Fridays:
Frugal Friday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, Pity Party, Look At Me

Saturdays/Sundays:
Lovely Little Linkup, Weekend Wander

Categorically Crafting

Key & Coat Shelf

Hubs and I have been married for almost 5 years now and throughout that entire time, I've always meant to come up with some kind of coat rack. In our first apartment, we used the vacuum cleaner as our coat rack. The coats and jackets just got piled on top of the vacuume cleaner. Sad, huh!? In our apartment now, the high chair was used as a coat rack. Whenever we needed the high chair, I'd pile the coats ontop of the table for a while. The high chair is in storage now and the jackets are moved around to different chairs around the table depending on where we want to sit. Right now the jackets are hung up in our bedroom closet (so their not cluttered on the table and chairs) but it's going to be time to pull them out again. In fact, we already did on Saturday! It was rainy and yucky and about 55 degrees when we left the house. And since they're out, they need a home. One that isn't the table or chairs, preferably.
No longer will the coats ben shuffled around. No longer will the keys be lost in the mess on the table or buried at the bottom of my purse!

I found this little unfinished beauty at the D.I. We have another shelf much like this one (without the hooks though) above our couch that has our last name carved into it. When I saw this one with the heart on it, I knew it would be the perfect companion for our other lonely little shelf.

Two dollars. That's all she cost! Adding in the cost of the paint I used, this little project cost a total of $3.75! Yay for cheap!!

I used Dark Chocolate and Fawn from the Americana Paint line. As a side note, I was NOT at all happy with the coverage of the Dark Chocolate. It took about 4 coats and almost the whole bottle of paint to get good coverage. I've use Americana and have always been happy with the way it covers (so much better than the super, super cheap stuff). I don't know if they've reformulated or if it was just this colors. Anyway, back to the project.

So, I slathered on the Dark Chocolate until she was good and covered. Then did some dry brushing with the fawn to add a little more of a textured look. You can't really see it in the picture though.

It now hangs right by our door, all decorated and pretty. Once I get some of my fall decor stuff done, I'll be switching these things out and putting some of it here on this shelf.

Thanks to all the fabulous bloggers out there who take the time and effort to host these spectacular parties!! We're linking up here:


Mondays:
Just Something I Whipped Up, Craftastic Monday, Turquoise Lovin', Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Mondays Marvelous, Creative Me Mondays

Tuesdays:
Get You Craft On, Tuesday Confessional, Who's Got Glam, Ta-Da Tuesdays, Tip Me Tuesdays, Take a Look Tuesdays, Show Me What You Got

Wednesdays:
Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednesday, What I Made Wednesday, DIY Under $5, Woot Woot Wednesday, Wow Me Wednesday, Your Whims Wednesday, Lil' Luna Link Party, Hoo's Got Talent

Thursdays:
Strut Your Stuff, DIY Diva Thursdays, Hookin' Up With House of Hepworths, Get Your Brag On

Fridays:
Frugal Friday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, PityParty, Look At Me

Saturdays/Sundays:
Lovely Little Linkup, Weekend Wander

Halloween Subway Art + Free Printable

As part of my Halloween decor, I created this cute little subway art printable!

Want one too? Click here to download your copy! Remember that this is only for personal use, please. If you'd like to share it with others, please be sure to link back to this post.

Also, this is a PDF download. I made the image small enough so that you could frame it as an 8.5x11 or also trim it down to put in an 8x10 frame (which is what mine is in). If you go for the 8x10 size, you'll probably need to trim it down by about 1/4" on each side, but that will vary based on the frame you're using.

Enjoy!



Thanks to all the fabulous bloggers out there who take the time and effort to host these spectacular parties!! We're linking up here:


Mondays:
Just Something I Whipped Up, Craftastic Monday, Turquoise Lovin', Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Mondays Marvelous, Creative Me Mondays

Tuesdays:
Get You Craft On, Tuesday Confessional, Who's Got Glam, Ta-Da Tuesdays, Tip Me Tuesdays, Take a Look Tuesdays, Show Me What You Got

Wednesdays:
Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednesday, What I Made Wednesday, DIY Under $5, Woot Woot Wednesday, Wow Me Wednesday, Your Whims Wednesday, Lil' Luna Link Party, Hoo's Got Talent

Thursdays:
Strut Your Stuff, DIY Diva Thursdays, Hookin' Up With House of Hepworths, Get Your Brag On

Fridays:
Frugal Friday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, PityParty, Look At Me

Saturdays/Sundays:
Lovely Little Linkup, Weekend Wander

Inspiration for Fall Decor

I'm not sure how the weather is where you are, but it's still fairly warm here - in the 80s and 90s during the day. I'm really looking forward to cooler temps! Nothing much, just in the 70s. In hopes of helping to usher in fall, I've been eyeing some super cute fall decor. I haven't started on anything yet, just browsing.

(All of these were found through Pinterest, so some may not have the actual source included. Sorry - I tried!)

So far I'm loving the whole pumpkin theme. Check out these Magical Pumpkins from The Charm of Home.

More pumpkins! I'm loving the Pumpkin Garland from A Glimpse Inside. This is something that I think even Andyroo could help make!

I also really like the look of the leaves on this Centerpiece from Thrifty Parsonage Living

These framed letters would be perfect for our apartment if they were a little smaller. Easy enough, right?

Source

I have yet to put up a wreath - ever. Anyone else with me on this? After seeing some of these cute (and easy) wreaths, I just might have to give it a go!

Found on Pinterest - Pin source says Ucreate. I didn't search through
the whole website to find it. Sorry :)

Recycled Magnetic Organizers

One of the things that drives me nuts is having piles of paper scattered around the kitchen counter and tables. We have a small apartment, so I try my hardest to keep things put away and uncluttered. (No comments from those of you who have seen my house at it's not-so-great moments!) I would love the ability to set up a whole functional (and pretty) station or desk to keep myself organized. I just don't have the space for that, so I came up with this instead.

Want to know what I used?

That's right! A Pringles container and a couple of empty boxes!!! I had everything on hand, so this project was completely free. Free is awesome!

This project is pretty self-explanatory. Pick a couple of boxes. I used some fruit snack boxes because they were big enough to fit full-sized piece of paper. I contemplated using a couple of smaller boxes, but just stuck with 2 fruit snack boxes and the Pringles can.

The Pringles can cuts down easily with just a serrated kitchen knife.

Pick some paper and mod podge it onto your boxes.

Attach some magnets. Initially I used hot glue, but the magnets kept falling off, so I pulled out my trusty E600 which worked like a charm. I used 2 magnets on the can and 4 on each of the boxes. I didn't want them sliding around on the fridge.

I also used my Silhouette to cut out some vinyl labels. You could easily print labels or use stickers. One box is for things that I need to file and the other is for things that need my attention or that I don't want to lose. I think they might have looked a little better if I had put the vinyl on a solid piece of paper then glued it onto the boxes, but this will work for now!

Thanks to all the fabulous bloggers out there who take the time and effort to host these spectacular parties!! We're linking up here:


Mondays:
Just Something I Whipped Up, Craftastic Monday, Turquoise Lovin', Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Mondays Marvelous, Creative Me Mondays

Tuesdays:
Get You Craft On, Tuesday Confessional, Who's Got Glam, Ta-Da Tuesdays, Tip Me Tuesdays, Take a Look Tuesdays, Show Me What You Got

Wednesdays:
Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednesday, What I Made Wednesday, DIY Under $5, Woot Woot Wednesday, Wow Me Wednesday, Your Whims Wednesday, Lil' Luna Link Party, Hoo's Got Talent

Thursdays:
Strut Your Stuff, DIY Diva Thursdays, Hookin' Up With House of Hepworths, Get Your Brag On

Fridays:
Frugal Friday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, PityParty, Look At Me

Saturdays/Sundays:
Lovely Little Linkup, Weekend Wander

Dollar Store Storage Bins

I'm in the process of redoing Andyroo's room. He never got a "proper" nursery when he was born, so I'm making up for lost time and giving him a new big boy room. Part of the new room is some cleaner, more efficient toy storage.

One of the things that drives me nuts about his room is the toys! I know I'm not the only mom out there who feels that way about their child(ren)'s toys. When he was younger and had fewer toys, I tried the shoe size (6 quart-ish) plastic bins. They worked, but he eventually got too many toys and the lids didn't fit or they were stepped on and broken. For a while, his favorite thing to do was dump out the little toy boxes. I finally gave up the insanity of separating the toys and just got him one big box.

But when he dumps that out because he's looking for his tiny green army men, I go crazy. I may be the mom, but I do NOT like cleaning up after the other people in this house!

I was considering making some canvas bins, but I'm afraid that they'll just get ruined very quickly - ripped or crushed or whatever. I wanted to do something that would be sturdy, so I was considering using cut up cereal boxes or plastic canvas as inserts in the middle of the canvas to make them stronger. But I kept thinking about how they would get destroyed so easily. So I put off making them for a few months.

Then as I was walking around the dollar store, I found the plastic bins in pink and light blue and my mind immediately went to the spray paint for plastics! So I grabbed 8 of them. There were only 10 on the shelf and while I considered taking all 10, I thought that was a little greedy. Instead I took 8. Hehe.

Krylon makes a great Plastics spray paint in quite a few colors. I found mine at Walmart for around $4, I think. It was windy, I got a little spray happy, and then towards the end the can wouldn't stop spraying. So the can only did the 3 I needed. *Phew* Even so, a total cost of less than $2.50 per bin isn't bad at all.

Only 6 would fit on Andyroo's shelf. Of the 8 I bought, 5 were a light blue and 3 were a bright pink. Since I needed 6, I was going to have to use one of the pink. I decided to use 3 light blue and 3 pink and paint the pink ones a darker shade of blue. I had pictures of the pink bins (so you could see just how pink they were), but they've disappeared somewhere into the abyss of my computer. Oh well. Use your imagination :)

The 2 shades of blue ended up matching the his Thomas the Train comforter (which I found on Clearance at Target - total score!) really well, which made me extra happy. I'm kind of pulling colors from his comforter for the rest of his room. Someday I'll get it finished and let you all see!

Much more tidy, don't you think?

Each bin is used for a different set of toy - potato head, cars, train, etc. Now everything has a place! And Andyroo doesn't have to dump out the whole bin when he wants to find Potato Head's moustache.

I think I want to add some picture labels, but I haven't decided yet. So far Andyroo's pretty good about just looking to see what is in each box. And I still usually have to help supervise clean up anyway, so I just grab a bin and tell him to put all his cars in it.

These have been in Andyroo's room for a little over a month now and they're working really well. The paint isn't peeling or being scratched off (another of my worries) and they're just so darn cute!

I'm also thinking of painting or redoing the book shelf. Any suggestions?

What system do you have to keep the toys from taking over your house?





We're linking up with these super awesome parties:


Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednseday, What I Made Wednesday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Frugal Friday, Lovely Little Linkup, Craftastic Monday, Woot Woot Wednesday, Strut Your Stuff, Our House of Joyful Noise, Get You Craft On, Wow Me Wednesday, Weekend Wander, Turquoise Lovin', Pity Party

Customized Wipes Container

As part of the Baby Boy Gift Basket that I'm doing, I made a coordinating wipes container to match the basket liner.

I've seen a few customized wipes containers floating around in blog land. I love this idea over at Junk in their Trunk. She painted and modpodged paper onto a wipes container.

I also really liked this Wipes Band idea from Less Cake {more frosting}.

But, I didn't have the really wide elastic and I wanted to make something to coordinate with the basket liner (LINK TO POST) I made to go in the gift basket. I decided I wanted to use the same fabric and dress (or boy) it up a little bit. The main reason for customizing this case though....

Pretty insane, right? I found this wipes container clearance at Walmart for like $0.75. This was before Andyroo decided to potty train, so I grabbed it thinking we would surely use it.

Nope! And now I have this cute (if you like Nemo) but kind of hideous container of wipes that needed to be used. Andyroo tore the plastic off while we were walking through the store and I couldn't stand the thought of these drying out and going to waste. I couldn't just stick them in with a baby gift like this.

Because of the mistake I made with the basket liner, I didn't have a piece of material long enough to go completely around the wipes case, so I had to use two pieces. One went over the back of the wipes case (it was about 9 or 10 inches) and the other went around the front and sides (it was about 17 or 18 inches long). You'll want to measure the wipes container you're working with in order to get an accurate measurement.

I wanted a finished edge, so I hemmed the edge of the material. My wipes container measured about 3 3/4" tall, so I cut my pieces about 4 3/4" and turned up about 1/2 on both the top and the bottom.

For the short piece on the back, I didn't worry about finishing the short sides, but for the long piece, I also turned in about 1/2 inch to give the seam a more finished look. The picture above is of the longer front piece.

After the two pieces were hemmed, I hot glued the back piece onto the wipes case first.

Then I also hot glued the front piece around the rest of the case. I'm all about symmetry, so I found the middle of the front piece and centered it on the wipes case so that they fell evenly on the back of the wipes case. The front piece overlapped the back piece by about an inch on each side.

No more Nemo!

I added a little flair to the wipes case so that it wasn't quite so boring. Nothing much, just a little (manly) ribbon.

We're linking up with these super awesome parties:


Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednseday, What I Made Wednesday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Frugal Friday, DIY Under $5, Lovely Little Linkup, Craftastic Monday, Woot Woot Wednesday, Strut Your Stuff, Our House of Joyful Noise, Get You Craft On, Wow Me Wednesday, Lovely Crafty Weekend, Weekend Wrap Up