Insulator Display

I know it is taking me FOREVER to get this master bedroom done but with everything else  going on it tends to get put on the back burner. 

Remember my tape holder I go way back here?

And that I pulled out the extra shelves here?

Well, It finally made it's way up onto the wall. Oh boy! I had my hubby put it up for me. I don't know exactly how he put it up but I do know that it's not coming down anytime soon. That's good since Alaska is prone to earthquakes but bad if you are the kind of person who likes to change stuff around all the time. *raising hand*

 

Any way... I had to do this project while it hung on the wall. My table? The 100 year old trunk. 

NOT recommended.

I was very careful and nothing happened but 100 year old trunks should not be used as craft tables. 

If using your 100 year old trunk isn't enough for you, use your brand new comforter as a second table. 

Also NOT recommended, but you use what ya got.

I tore up an atlas that was on it's last limb and used a mixture of glue and water to adhere the pages to the back. 

After I was done I popped the shelves back in and let it dry.

Then I let my husband stock it with his eagle feather and insulator collection. 

The chippy wood, the map background, the old insulators, the natural feathers....I love it together. 

Know who loves it more? My husband. This is his one and only display of his collections. We will be pulling out some of his larger insulators to use around the room.

Cost: $ .67- I had to buy glue

What the heck is an insulator? Click here.

Linking to:

Show Me What Ya Got

It Snowed

We woke up Wednesday morning to snow!

This was Evelyn's first time out in it by herself. I don't think she was too impressed.

Anberlynn was in love with it though. If it hadn't of been 40 degrees she probably would have stayed out there all day!

Snow for me is bitter sweet. As breath taking as it can be I know that I'm going to have 6 months of it coming to me. That means 6 months of wet flooring, 6 months of taking half an hour just to get everyone dressed to go out, 6 months of shoveling my driveway and 6 months of higher heating bills. 

Closet Office Makeover!

 After much anticipation here she is!

Just for good measure lets take a look at the before one more time.

Hard to believe it's the same space right?

I can not believe how much stuff fit into this closet! We go the file cabinet at Habitat for Humanity for $10. It's  pretty much in new condition AND it came full of files! 

It's nice to have my crafting stuff so close at hand. Before my peg board was too tall to reach everything.  We had all the stuff to make it in the garage so it was free! 

These $13 shelves from Walmart get the job done. All the accessories we had in our office before. 

I love seeing the stencil poke out here and there but not too over powering.

To top it all off a few pieces of ribbon serve as tie backs. I used some fabric I already had to make the curtains. 

There you have it. From manly turtle cave to girly office in a closet.

Cost Break Down:

Desk $25

File Cabinet $10

Stools 50 cents

Shelves $39

Paint and stencil: $5

Ribbon $1

Total: $80. 

For me this was a pretty expensive project but I'll tell you my secret- I sold the desk we had for $80. Making this project virtually free!!! 

To see some of the process click here!

To see how we reused the turtle tank stand click here! 

Linking up here: 

Show Me What Ya Got

It's the Little Things

When it comes to organizing your solutions don't have to be complicated or expensive. Sometimes the littlest changes make a big difference. this week I pulled out my crate-o-cords and had to sort through the web to find the one I wanted and untangle all of it. Before I put them away again I wrapped each of them up and stuck them in a toilet paper roll. 

Real Simple

I would recommend checking out the whole article on Real Simple.The Article is called New Uses For Old Things: Get Organized Using Everyday Items. It's full of great ideas!

Halloween Decor

My TP Roll Family Tree is still my most often visited post to date. I am sad to tell you all that there is a time and a season for everything and right now it is October which means it is time for Halloween decor!

As you can tell I can't let anything stay the same :) I even traded the dresser and replaced it with the one I found on the side of the curb. I can't wait to show you what I got for it!

These are the dryervent pumpkins I made last year before I started blogging but they are super cheap and easy to make. 

This half dead looking cat was a pick from my daughter. Last year we bough this poor little thing at Michaels. We had gone several times and not bought it but I had drug her out kicking and screaming every time. The next time we went it was 60% off and I told her if she behaved the entire time she could have it. She drug this thing all over Anchorage for the rest of the day. 

The cloches were not going to let me get a good picture but I filled them with purple sparkly garland and made them eyes with some basic shape on my Cricut.   

The bats are foam. I bought them for something like a dollar last year. They were all the same shape and size so I cut them down to make some of them look closer or further away.

An there you have it. My quick and simple decorations. Since they were all from last year they were free :) 

Linked to:

A Less then $10 Dishwasher Miracle

I was convinced that my dishwasher had given up the ghost. The water was just swishing around in there and not getting anything clean. I had stated looking at new ones and I knew I couldn't afford even the $200 ones with the holidays and heating bills coming up. 

While we were at the hardware store the lady asked if we needed help fining anything else and my husband said jokingly, "Well, if you have a cure for our dishwasher we'll take that." 

She asked what was wrong and when we told her she didn't even blink an eye when she told us to use CLR. 

$8.24 on Amazon

She said that the water up here is so hard that it ruins dishwashers all the time.

So we gave it a shot. It even had directions on the back specifically FOR DISHWASHERS!!!! 

From the back of the container:

"Poor 1/2 cup to an empty device, and run cycle; run additional cycle to rinse"

Guess what. IT WORKED!!!!!!

My dishwasher is running good as new now!!!! WOOT!! 

The Waiting Game

 During this closet transformation I have had LOTS of time to wait. Paint drying, calk drying, stencils drying, desk being built, shelves being installed......and the list goes on. So in the mean time I got busy with some other projects. 

I found this inspiration on Pinterest and took a picture with my phone so I could bring it with me. 

I tried to find the source for this but Pinterest led in circles. I this is your  work please let me know and I would LOVE credit you :) 

 I grabbed a sheet of ply wood and made my own huge sign for the bedroom. The back looks yellowish but I promise it's white.

Since I had everything on hand this whole project was FREE! I always love that!

Remember this from WAY back?

Well I finally got around to removing some of the shelve so we can use it to show off some of my husbands insulator collection. The plan is to mod podge the back with maps from an atlas that we have that's been falling apart.

I found these curtains at Lowes and instantly fell in love. I REALLY like polka dots! I bought 3 of them. 

2 I used for make curtains. 

With the left overs I made a bookshelf that goes on a curtain rod. Does that make any since? I will get pictures when it is put in, right now something else is in it's space.

Do you remember this? This is the closet that I am turning into an office but what I want you to see is the wood stand under the turtle tank. 

I flipped it over and found out that it was hollow. I bought two hinges on sale for 50 cents and had the hubby attach a piece of ply wood we have had sitting around to the top.  I bought foam with a 50% off coupon (that stuff is still too expensive!) and used my last curtain to upholster it! Tada! HUGE toy storage!

I also used soem spare pieces to make hanging bags for the bunk bed. I recycled the ribbons that were around the girls windows before to make the ties. I love being able to read books without struggling with the girls to put them away as we read them. Now, they just go into the pockets!

Speaking of foam, I found myself a free source! It only comes in the summer time and it will only make small projects but check it out:

That's right. Insulated shipping bags. My Scentsy stuff comes int hem so that it doesn't melt. I had to cut the top off of one because it was taped shut and found FOAM!!! This was an ugly brown chair the hubs brought home a while back. I painted it white and used the foam to upholster the seat.

Super cute right? Well, it was supposed to go with my desk in my closet office but it's too short!!! :( So for now it has no home. 

Of course the old stand by for a waiting period is to doodle. 

And if doodling isn't fulfilling enough go shopping!!! 

This table we got from my mother in law. 

There was nothing wrong with it but it was pretty dark for this little space, the legs prevented any extra adults from comfortably fitting around it and the girls kept hitting their heads on the corners. 

I now introduce to you my $25 Craigslist table. 

The two center sections fold into the table to make it smaller and we could all fit around it then too but I like to bring the food to the table.  Plus the pedestal base makes it possible to actually fit more than just the 4 of us  when we need it. 

PS ignore the towel under the dishwasher and know that you should never try to clean your dishwasher with Ajax ;) 

Well, that's all the things that I ahve been doing while waiting for the paint to dry :)  What do you do?

Breast Cancer Awareness Fundraiser

I know that I have been posting a favorites page every Friday but this week I am sharing something more important.

My friend Sariah has dedicated herself to raising $2,300 for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk for the Cure! That is a lot of money and she is less than half way there. The walk is a 60 mile walk spread out over 3 days. The proceeds go to breast cancer research and community programs. 

If you find it in yourself to donate you can click on the image above to go to Sariah's 3 Day Walk Fundraising page. She writes about whom she is walking for and why she started walking.

I am also sponsoring her via a Scentsy Fundraiser. If you want to buy something for yourself here know that when you buy from "Sariah's 3-Day Walk Fundraiser" 25% of your order will go to Sariah's 3-Day Walk.