Posts tagged ‘home’

With Clementine Season reaching a close we have accumulated at least 6 crates. Those wooden boxes are so wonderful, and I never throw them out. At the moment I am using them to hold individual projects-in-the-making in my craft room, and will probably continue to use them for that for a while.

There are other ways to use the clementine crates though. I have used them in the past as drawer organizers, since they are so short. I keep my cookbooks in one in my kitchen on top the fridge. And I know that Colleen used them for craft room organization in the past. Since I have more than I need this year, I will probably use the two extra I have for kindling in our fireplace since the wood is nice and dry and should catch fire quickly.

But all of those crates were easy to find purposes for. The challenge for me this year was what to do with the orange plastic nets that are on the top of them. Well, I zigzagged two of them together and sewed a strap onto it. Now we hang all of the bath toys in it for draining. But that only used two! Does anyone else have a creative use for them?

I’ve been slowly going room to room in my house to reorganize the spaces better.  So, when rethinking my pantry area, I needed to better see my wines instead of standing them up and pushing them to the back of the shelf.

My first thought was to shop for wine shelves.  My second thought was “do I have anything in the house that might work?”  Lucky for me, I saved some money and reused this metal shelf that previously held two metal drawers.

I keep many odd things that I’m not using just in case I can find alternative uses for them.  As another example, I’m keeping these tops from my dishwasher utensils tray.  I have zero intentions of using them with the dishwasher but can’t part with them yet.  Do you have an idea of how I can use them?  I think they have potential for organizing something…

For a few Christmas gifts this year I’m making record bowls.  Everyone can use decorative bowls for something like office supplies, wrapped candies, candles, or spare change & keys.  Plus, I think this is a good manly gift for my brothers, who are very hard to shop for!

Supplies:  a vinyl record (one that’s not valuable!), oven, oven mitts, oven-safe bowl, an additional bowl for shaping the record after it comes out of the oven, and a cookie tray. Read more »

These transparent votive candle holder decals from How About Orange are on my list of things to do for Halloween. Usually by this time I am halfway done with two handmade costumes, neck deep in candy corn and finished roasting my second batch of pumpkin seeds. But this year things have gotten away from me, obviously, and there isn’t a spooky decoration in my entire home.

I will definitely have time for this, though. I was also thinking about doing it with an orange Gatorade powder container that I have around. We can transfer the face of a jack-o-lantern, like this one I made in GIMP really quickly, and Mod Podge it to the container and fill it with candy corn. I expect my kids will really like this, because they’ll be able to help, and then there will be a pumpkin container full of candy, and you can’t beat that!

You’re more than welcome to take my jack-o-lantern face and use it yourself. Just right click and save it to your computer.

I’ve slowly been revitalizing my landscaping for Fall.  I trimmed down spent plants & removed the sad-looking annuals from my pots.  Originally I thought I’d come home with colorful mums for the pots, but instead put together a pretty leafy combo of perennials (which were all 50% off at my favorite local garden center, Donzell’s!).  I used Siberian Iris in the back (it’ll have white flowers in the spring), Japanese Painted Fern on the left, and Beard Tongue on the right (more white flowers in spring).

Fall 2009 Edition of Lonny Magazine

I never subscribed to Domino Magazine (sorry if I’m one of the reasons it failed) but I still check back issues out from the library when I need some inspiration. I just love looking at the inside of other people’s homes and the furniture they select.

Well, some of the staff from Domino Magazine have started a new endeavor call Lonny Magazine. The first issue is available online by following the link. I’ve been scanning the pages and I’m enjoying the layout, the design tips and the features on upcycling your own furniture in order to achieve the sense of style you are looking for.

Another fun thing about reading the magazine online is the live links you can follow by mousing over the pages. I saw the book The Self Sufficient-ish Bible on page 26, and clicked on it’s cover which brought me here in case I wanted to make it my own. Very cool!

This weekend my husband & I visited three homes on the Ohio Solar Tour 2009.  It’s an annual state-wide event where homeowners give tours of the solar & other alternative energy systems used in their homes.  I’ve read so much about these technologies over the years, but it was very educational to visit real homes in my community.    There’s also a National Solar Tour, which lists by state events throughout the year.

a home on the Ohio Solar Tour

As far as alternative energy for our home, the most cost-effective option we’re researching is using solar energy for water heating.  The basic idea is the sun heats antifreeze, which is pumped into a heater-exchanger where it heats your water.  One home we visited on the tour used this technology, and their water gets so hot, they add cold water to it to cool it (and we live in mild, cloudy Ohio!)

Besides that, we just need to get a grasp on our home’s energy inefficiency.  It needs re-insulated for sure…it’s drafty & cold all winter unless we spend a fortune on heat.  We’re thinking of getting a home energy evaluation to look for where our home is leaking energy otherwise…places like around doors or windows, where the foundation meets the rest of the house structure, and perhaps we’ll learn why one room in the house always has a freezing-cold floor…

Our home doesn’t have a separate entryway, which disappoints my husband who loves order and structure. In an effort to create a space to house all of our outdoor items and create a landing space for the mail I put this antique buffet along the wall near the front door and have used the drawers and cabinets to hold the gloves, hats and bags.

Since the baby came I have also been frustrated by our home’s lack of a play area or any other non-main-living space to keep the baby’s diaper changing area. After trekking upstairs to get diaper items a dozen times I decided to let the buffet do double duty. I emptied out one of the drawers and put a diaper changing pad in the bottom, stacked some cloth and disposable diapers in there, and added a spray bottle for clean up. Now we have a compact and convenient place to change Cressida, who happily lays in the drawer for a quick freshening up.

Potato Stamped Curtains by Diber

We had some new photos added to our stream by readers this past week. They are so Fall Wonderful I had to share them with you. This first photo is from a long-time cyber friend of mine who goes by Diber. She says that these curtains were one of those OMG-I-Have-To-Make-This-Right-Now projects. She made the potato stamps and went to town. She suggests using a roller for the ink in order to get a more even application. I like the uneven handmade look of how it turned out.

I want to switch my kitchen colors to more warm tones for fall/winter and I think I might use these curtains as inspiration. I might take the pattern over to some custom made hand towels as well.

Earrings by Katie Earley

This second photo is of two pairs of earrings made by reader Katie Earley for her Mom’s birthday. I love the earrings, which look very similar in construction to Colleen’s Beginner Earring Tutorial, and I LOVE the packaging. The fall tones in the earrings are picked up and accented with the photo of wellies in the cardstock holder. The paper came from an advertising brochure and the composition is just wonderful. I would be thrilled to receive a gift like this.

I love waiting for sales.  Not because I like waiting, but because I want my money to go a little further.  The other day I got some major bargains at Lowe’s on perennial flowers.  Most of the flowers were done blooming for the season, and some I think were just the last of their types (because they hadn’t bloomed yet).  Either way, all the flowers I purchased were $1 or $2 each, and I got more than double the flowers I would at regular price.  Even though many won’t do anything pretty this season, I have next year to look forward to.