Spice rack

We recently moved into our new home! This is super exciting and exhausting all at the same time.  The last to be packed and first to unpack was our kitchen- my husband and I love to cook which also means lots of cooking supplies, like spices.  As I am unpacking boxes, I quickly realized we had a lot of spices, and I mean a lot of them!  At our old home, we used a small bit of coveted kitchen cabinet space for the spices, but here, we have an actual pantry so we decided that we will put them where they belong.

I have had my Tupperware spice shakers for many years and always store all of the spices in them.  I have also always kept them in the cabinets because I have never had room to put them in the pantry.  When trying to figure out the best way to organize my spices, I quickly realized that due to the unique size, most store-bought spice shaker racks would not suffice.  Thank goodness I have a handy husband who can build stuff.

He took a few of the dimensions and went to town on building.  Because he hates redoing things (and I do not blame him at all) he did a mock up of it on the computer.

After building and painting it was time for a test hang and to make sure everything was just as how we wanted it.  It turned out perfect!  It holds 20 small spice shakers not stacked, 30 tall spice shakers or regular store bought ones, plus holds the frequently used parchment paper and zip lock bags.  No complaints from this wife.

     

Spice Rack

Easter Card

I designed and created this fun little Easter card for my Mom.  I do not get to see my family too often because of distance, so I try to send them little things to let them know how much they mean to me and know that I am thinking of them.

Easter Card

Easter Card- Inside

Baby Cards

I am still learning more and more on my new Cricut.  No big long story today, just a few fun pictures of what I have been working on.  Enjoy!

   

Ring Toss!

Who doesn't love random yard games!  We are lucky that our venue already had several that we could borrow but we decided that we wanted a few more to add to the fun during the cocktail hour and for those who want a break from the dance party.  After searching on pintrest and drinking lots of wine, we made a ring toss game.  I know, so hard to try and make this that we had to drink 12 bottles of wine.

I wanted to use things that we already had or if we had to buy, would use again.  So 12 bottles of wine were easy for the something we already had.  I purchased and stained a milk crate that we bought from Lowes for about $10. Spray painted the wine bottles in gold glitter.  Bought and wrapped 12- 3" rings.

Supplies:

• 12 wine bottles (you could always use pop bottles if you want smaller bottles)
• 1 milk crate
• 12- 3" rings
• scrap fabric
• spray paint
• stain for crate

Directions for bottles

1. Drink enough wine for the number of bottles you need.  We needed 17 so that was fun. ☺

2. Spray paint the bottles in a fun color. We used gold glitter and were sure to be outside.  When we looked from our window outside, it looked like we had gold in the yard for a couple of weeks.  

Directions for crate:
1. We bought a pre-made milk crate for about $10 at our local hardware store. I have seen them at several craft stores as well. I do not suggest making your own for the level of detail that you can get vs the price on the pre-made crates.
2. Stain the color of your choice.  As with staining anything, you will want to apply the stain in thin coats and wipe off the extra stain between applications. I have found typically 2 coats of stain gets me the color of wood that I want.  As you can see, my fiance at least pretended he was enjoying what he was doing.

Directions for rings:

1. Cut the fabric scraps into about 1" wide strips and long enough to cover the whole ring.  

2. Adhere the fabric to the ring; I used a glue gun but really any type of adhesive should work perfectly.   

After all said and done, the ring toss turned out pretty good. I think everyone enjoyed playing at the wedding and we now have a yard game for the house.

Blanket Ladder

Warm comfy quilts are amazing!  If you have read any of my posts, then you know that I really enjoy making quilts.  At our house, we have quite a collection mounding and what a better way to display them and make it easy to pick what you want than by a blanket ladder.

After looking how much these can actually cost, I decided a DIY project was going to be in my future.  I found some really good plans from Shanty 2 Chic and made 1 modification to their plan.  The original plan called for it to be a 5’ ladder with only 4 rungs- well let’s face it, I need a few more than that!  My ladder ended up being 6’ with 5 rungs- everything else the exact same!  I decided to give my ladder a quick sanding so that neither me nor the quilts would get snagged by unfriendly wood. 

If you are wanting to get into wood working, the ladies have super easy to follow plans and I would highly suggest taking a look at what they have. 

Assembling the ladder- with my trusted helper 

Blanket ladder completed!

Cricut Machine

For Christmas, my husband got me a Cricut machine and I love it!  Although I am still  learning, I have used it a ton and have so many more projects I want to do with it.  One of the first things I made was a condolence card for my husbands Aunt whose dog passed away.  Although an extremely sad reason to make something, I think she truly appreciated it.

Stay tuned for a few lessons I have learned already with the machine.

Many more cards to come and even a few might make the shop to sell.

Medal Board

I love to run and collecting the bling has been a great inspiration for me to keep running!

I ran my first road race in September 2013 with a few of my girlfriends.  It was a long, hot grueling race in the middle of the Texas summer sun.  The race itself was fun, but did I mention it was HOT!!!  It was a flat 5k and the race got me the taste of racing that I love today.  Fast forward to race #6 in April 2014 where I got my first medal.  Yes, a participation medal, but bling none the less.

During a race in 2015, I overheard someone say that they goal that year was to run 15 races for 2015.  I thought that sounded like a great idea and decided that 16 races for 2016 was where my mind was set.  My now husband (he still could have backed out with my crazy ideas at this point) decided to do it with me.

Between the medals my husband has and the ones I have, we needed a good way to display them.  We decided on a medal board.  Because we made this one ourselves, we were able to completely customize it to our wants.  Basic guide on how we did it is below.

Medal Board Completed!

 I absolutely love how it turned out!  Although my husband has said he does not have a desire to ever do a marathon, he still has a spot for a time in the event he changes his mind.  For now, we just try to beat our best times each time we race.

Materials:
1- 1x12x2ft (length is up to you) pine board
pre-stain
stain (color of your choice- Jacobean was used for this project)- we typically use Minwax for the pre-stain and stain; it is easy to apply and I really like the color options
chalk board paint
vinyl & vinyl cutting machine
Hillman Steel Screw Hooks (however many you want)- we used 44 total- 22 on each row
Sander with 220 grit sandpaper

Instructions:
1. CUT: After identifying what we wanted the board to say (our names on each of the sides with the 5k, 10k, half, and full) we were able to determine the legnth of board that would be needed.  A 2ft cut board seemed to work the best.  You can find 1x12 boards at your local hardware store. You do not need any fancy wood, we ended up with the select pine which is the higher end pine just so that we had a smoother, non-twisted board.

2. SAND: We cut the board down to the 2ft and gave it light sanding with a 220 grit sandpaper.  If you board is super rough, you can start with a 180 grit and then move to the 220 grit to give it the finished smooth feel.

3. STAIN: For the stain, we decided on a bit of a darker color, Minwax Jacobean, which gave the very rich look we were looking for.  We did go with a second coat so that the stain could really soak into the grain and give an extra rich look.  TIP: For best results when staining, use a pre-stain which helps the wood take the stain.  TIP: Wipe off extra stain and then let dry. You want the stain to go onto the wood in a smooth even tones and by wiping off the excess, you will reduce the chances of blotchy wood spots.  You can always put on additional coats of stain but it is harder to remove the blotchy spots caused by excess stain.  You will know the stain is dry when it is not sticky to the touch.

4. PAINT:  Although the stain can says it is dry in a few hours, we did let it dry overnight as we were going to paint on top of the stain on one side.  We taped off 1" around the top and sides with painters as we had 1" painters tape.  For the bottom, we left a 3" space for the medal hooks.  Two coats of black chalk board paint later, and we were ready for the hooks.

5. HARDWARE:  We started off with 22 hooks along the bottom and then quickly realized our love of running has made it so that we needed room for more medals, so a total of 44 hooks were used.  We spaced them an 1" apart horizontally and in between the top row for the 2nd row. (More tips on how to add hardware will be in other posts.)

6 FINISHING TOUCH:  I used my Cricut Maker to cut the white vinyl names and race distances.  When we first made the board, I had just hand chalked on the board- I love the way the upgrade turned out!

Medal Board before vinyl

Medal Board Completed!