Tuesday, February 28, 2012

DENVER!!!

I left Sunday morning and boarded the Amtrak at 7:30am.  I arrived at Denver yesterday morning at 7:15am.  I had a very good trip, met lots of fun people on the train and in the station during my layover.  I'm enjoying every minute of seeing my family out here and spending time with them!

I realized that I never updated with pictures of my clean craft room and living room.  I did clean them, I promise :) I just forgot to take pictures and post them.  I will when I get back though, no worries :)

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Nightmare in my office/craft/guest bedroom Part 2

Okay, okay, this is part 3 technically since I updated on the last post ;)  Today, I was feeling better, so I started tackling the project.  It's about half way through and I'm happy to report that I now have a path through my living room and I have 1 garbage bag full of trash and 1 1/2 boxes full of stuff for my garage sale.  I still have the other half to go, but it's late and I need sleep :)  This project will continue tomorrow evening, and until it is finished.  And it better be finished by Saturday night! :)  Sorry, no pics yet... when it's done though, I promise!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Nightmare in my office/craft/guest bedroom

Yesterday, I tackled the kitchen.  I got caught up on all the dishes.  I deep cleaned our refrigerator, which has been needing attention for months!  I scrubbed our sink, counters and stove top.  My motivation - my mom and dad were possibly stopping by ;)  In the end, they didn't end up coming over, and hubby's response? "I'm going to call your mom and tell her to make plans to possibly stop over once a week." :D  The kitchen has grossly needed this attention since I quit my job in December, yikes!  Hopefully now, I'll be able to keep it clean and it won't take me as long (4 hours yesterday!).

Today, I'm tackling the living room and my office/craft/guest bedroom.  I'll have before and after pictures for this project, even though I'm slightly... ok REALLY embarrassed by the condition I've let it get in!  This also includes my living room, because during the bathroom redo, I pulled out my craft stuff to work in the living room while watching movies.  On top of this, I have piles of stuff that is waiting to be sold, either on craiglist or ebay, sitting in the corner of our living room!  So today's motivation?  I'm telling the world about this mess I've let sit for way too long, and I need to redeem myself (and my sanity) :)

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Update:  This task will have to be continued tomorrow :(  Unfortunately, medical issues decided to consume my life today, and I've ended up on the couch... I'm sorry in advance to my hubby, who has to walk through a maze in our living room.  See, I emptied out the spare room and got it dusted and vacuumed.  I emptied it all into the living room, so that is where it lies... until tomorrow (prayerfully, I'll be feeling better tomorrow!)

Monday, February 13, 2012

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel cookies

Earlier this week I found a bag of vanilla wafers in our pantry.  I decided I was going to try making homemade Chocolate covered Peanut Butter Caramel Cookies similar to a Peanut Butter Twix bar.  I was less than thrilled with the results, but at least I learned what doesn't work :)  They taste yummy, they are just hard as a rock and impossible to get out of the cupcake paper liner.   Here's how I made them.

This is what I started with: 10 individually wrap caramals, peanut butter, semi-sweet chocolate chips and vanilla wafers.

I filled the bottom of the cupcake papers with chocolate chips.

I spread the peanut butter on the vanilla wafer and then put it on top of the layer of chocolate chips.

Then I placed one unwrapped caramel piece on top of the wafer with peanut butter.

I put them in the oven at 200* for about 5 minutes.  Just long enough to melt.

This is what they looked like after I pulled them out of the oven.

I layered another handful of chocolate chips on top.  And put them back in the oven.  Again for about 5 minutes - just long enough for the chocolate to melt.

This is the final 'cookie'.

It's extremely delicious, just a pain to eat :)  Next time I'll have to use milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet and I think instead of melting them in the oven all put together, I may melt the chocolate first in the bottom.  Let it harden, then add the cookie and the peanut butter.  Then melt the caramel and pour it over the peanut butter and cookie.  Let that harden.  And lastly melt the last bit of chocolate and pour over the top and then let it harden :)  Hopefully then, the caramel won't be rock hard and maybe then it won't all stick to the liner! :)

Feel free to comment with any ideas that you may have to make it better too!


Thursday, February 9, 2012

It is finished!

Our bathroom is finished - at least with what we had planned to do for now! In the future, I would like to hang a towel rack on the wall that had one when we bought the house. I just have yet to find one that I like and that is within our price range of cheap :) Here is the final picture with all 4 bins that I made.

I can't decide which way I like the bin to face - I'm not sure if I like the pocket or the seam or a side that doesn't have either towards the front :)  I'm sure I'll move it around everyday for a while, at least until I like how it looks!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

T-Shirt flowers

Yesterday early morning I posted pictures of my new bins for my bathroom.  I made flowers to decorate them using t-shirt scraps.

I cut out a rectangle and I used a hemmed piece to make it easier and to keep it from curling up.


I folded it in half and glued it together along the non-folded edge.

Then I cute strips about 1/4-3/8" deep along the folded egde.  The strips were spaced apart at variable intervals.

When rolled up, I glued along the bottom edge as I rolled.

I squished it down a little bit so that the pedals would fold out towards the bottom.

I added a square of green underneath it and then trimmed it down to look like two leaves.

This is what the bottom looks like.

The next flower is the rose.  I don't have step by step of it, but you'll get the idea.
Again, I folded a long strip in half.  I cut half circles along the top in various sizes and depths.

When rolled up it looks like a rose.  I folded the outside pedals down to make it look more authentic.

This is what it looks like standing up!

And then I glued them to the bins and I LOVE them :)

Monday, February 6, 2012

Bathroom continued

I'm finally just about done organizing the bathroom!  It's been two and a half weeks since I started the project.  It's not done yet, but I ran out of supplies (hot glue) tonight.  I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow.  But for now, I have pictures to show you what I've accomplished!

This is what I started with: Cardboard boxes,

and left over t-shirt pieces from other crafts and Hubby's old khakis that had holes in various places.

I cut the cardboard box into pieces - 4 walls and a bottom (times 2).


Then I cut out the fabric pieces to fit the cardboard cut outs.  This piece was cut off from the sides of Hubby's cargo shorts.  LOVE the pockets :)

 I ran out of the light color khaki, so the interior cover is a darker khaki.  The top rim on the inside is the waist band from the shorts.  On the second bin that I made, I glued fabric on the inside corners instead and I like that much better.  I just forgot to take a close up picture.

 This one is filled with our meds.

 The top one is filled with first aid stuff.  Our cabinet looks SO much neater!  I still have 2 or 3 more bins to make, but I have to find fabric (I'm running out of khakis) ;) and I have to get more hot glue.

The bins were inspired from a post on pinterest.  The original blog post is here: http://www.urbannestblog.com/2009/04/cereal-box-storage-bins/
The flowers on the bins were used with old t-shirt scraps.  The inspiration came from Jody @ http://homeyhomedesign.blogspot.com/2012/02/flower-power-easy-flower-tutorial.html?spref=fb
The exception is that I used t-shirts :)  Tomorrow (later on today) I'll post the details on how I made those!