Scarves UP!

I don't know a lot about Soccer, but I know that our Seattle Sounders rally cry with scarves and I keep hearing..."Scarves Up!"  Well, if you know me, you know I have an addiction...making things, to coffee, but most importantly, to scarves!  The first step is admitting it, right?!?  My addiction started in London on Notting Hill Road I was in a little shop full of silks from East India. Now, I order them in bulk from an online retailer (because you have to order a minimum, but they are WAY cheaper) and give them as gifts...and keep a few for myself. 

I have yearned for a system to keep them in order and neatly hung, because, more often than not, they are on the floor like this. 

You take the following:
-a hanger (the sturdier the better)
-shower curtain rings
-clothes pins (my addition)
-SCARVES!

How to:
1. Put the rings around the lower part of a clothes hanger. 

2. Thread your scarves through the rings!

3. I put clothes pins in between because as it was they all slid to the center and therefore were not hanging pretty and were all jumbled.

4. Hang up in the closet!

I finally found this idea on Pinterest, but I added a bit more structural stability.  The idea I used from Pinterest wasn't quite holding up under the weight of my vast array of scarves.

Easter Egg Wreath!

I have seen these everywhere for years and thought..."Hey! I can make that!"  So here we go!

Supplies Needed:

Foam wreath

grass

ribbon

lots of plastic Easter eggs (variable sizes or uniform)

glue gun and glue

Here's the HOW TO:

1. Purchase a foam wreath form at whichever size you would prefer from whichever craft store you would prefer.  We have a HOBBY LOBBY now, so I went there.  And, it has a "Made In America" stamp.  It impressed me.  Sorry, I am weird!

2. I bought a pretty big bag of pull-apart grass in a "friendly" color and began adhering it to the wreath form to just cover it a bit.  This might work well with felt or fabric too.

3. I slung a coordinating ribbon around the wreath to serve as a hanger.  I bought this one from the $1.00 bin at Michael's and I think I got 25% off if I am not mistaken.  I LOVE a good deal!!!

4. Then I began to glue eggs on, carefully spacing them out so as to not allow same colored eggs to touch.  (Something about the history teacher in me and all those political maps I colored with my hundreds of students!)  I found a bag of 42 large eggs at Walmart for less than $2.00 and a bag of 24 small eggs at Hobby Lobby for 87cents!  I used all of them...66 eggs!  There are a few small gaps that I think I will eventually fill in but it looks great as is too!

Finished Product! 

   

I like it a lot and it was WAY cheaper than any store I've seen them in.  They retail for 20-30 for this size.  Mine was about $7.00!

The finished TABLE!

The finished table top!

It looks even better now with the beautiful bouquet of flowers I got for no reason last week! :)

Who forgets Birthdays?

Apparently me!  And Matt!
So, I saw this craft idea on Pinterest a few months ago and now it is a great time to make it!  Here it goes.

You need:

• board
• paint
• wood chips (small wood circles)
• eye screws (local hardware store)
• jump rings (found in the beading section of your craft store)
• markers
• ribbon

Here's what I did:
1. I painted the main board and the wood chips.

2. Then, I drilled 2 holes, opposite one another, in each wood chip and the main board for hanging.

3. I chose to paint a tree.  I finger painted, literally.  But only because I don't have paint brushes!  I just dabbed my finger in the paint and then gently touched the board.  I think this turned out pretty cool, especially the blue bird!  It makes me laugh.

4. Then I screwed in the eye screws.  You will need 12 of them and depending on how large your wood chips are, you will need to space them accordingly.

5. Then I organized each month's chips and wrote the name, date of birth/ date of anniversary and year on each chip, making sure to keep the holes on the top and bottom of the chips.

6.  I added the wording.  I stamped the word "FAMILY" and then I wrote out birthdays and anniversaries.  I also wrote the abbreviations of each month above the eye screws.  Some of the written part is very faint.  I need to get a thicker marker.

7. Here is the finished product!

I'd like to think this will help me to NEVER forget another family birthday again...but seriously, I probably will, so please forgive me (us) in advance!

Gardening with the Konrads...

I have many fond memories of gardening with my mom when I was a little girl.  She had a pretty big vegetable garden and planted flowers in every nook and cranny.  We would eat tomatoes like apples, carrots with dirt on them, and more peas raw than I can remember.  We initiated kids to the neighborhood by showing them our "red celery" AKA rhubarb and some of them even tasted it!  We played baseball in our back yard with ghost runners, and got paid to pick slugs of the potato plants (If I remember it was only a couple cents per slug)!

I've been attempting to garden the past few summers with very little luck.  Container gardening in apartment patios probably works if you are determined.  I wasn't.  The summer I met Matt, I had an awesome tomato plant that grew like crazy, but it frosted before any of the tomatoes turned into actual edible tomatoes.

Well, now that we have our own place, this is something I have wanted to do.  We have a pretty big back yard, although the back 2/3 of it is wilderness (we made a fire pit up there so it feels like we're camping whenever we want!).  Anyway, we put some raised bed garden boxes around the patio today.  Hopefully on a warm summer night, we will get fresh smells of growing plants wafting around our patio as we share a BBQ dinner with friends or family!

Here's what we needed:

• several untreated pieces of wood (no chemicals in this garden)
• screws
• we needed a saw to cut some of the wood, but if you know what you want and don't have one Lowe's will cut wood for you.  Home Depot will not.
• a power drill will come in handy!

Here's what we did:
--We planned to build 3 boxes.  The first at 12 ft x 4 ft.  Another at 16 ft. x 4 ft.  These two will be 12 inches high, so we'll need to double up the sides.  The last at 3 ft. x 3 ft.  This one will be just one layer.
1. Cut wood pieces to desired length.

2. We started by assembling the ends of the boxes.  We drilled the actual exterior panels to a block that works as a stabilizer in the corners of the boxes.  Then we added the sides on.  To make sure that the sides were aligned and stayed in place, we put another stabilizing piece about half way on each long side.  (Sorry there are not pictures of these stages. I was either 1. helping Matt, or 2. attacking the weed patch!)

In all, it took us about 2 hours to build them and set them in place.
 
Now for the DIRT! And a new patio table and chairs!

(Some friendlies!)

Too many utensils, not enough space? Plant flowers...er...silverware!

We have a severe lack of kitchen space and our actual kitchen cabinetry included 1 small drawer.  I refinished an old dresser and book shelf last summer to add some storage.  Then I found another dresser/ hutch and altered it to add more storage.  

Still, we had very little drawer space and I am a chef, so I have many utensils that need happy little homes.  So, after seeing this idea on Pinterest, I decided to give my larger utensils a bit more room to swim and place our silverware their our place to blossom!
Here's what you'll need: 
Small-ish flower pots
spray paint 
cork fabric
buttons
string
scrap paper
hot glue gun!

1. I found flower pots at the dollar store.  They had big, ugly floral decals on them so I chose spray paint in coordinating colors and sprayed away!  You can't even tell they had prints on them!

2. I picked out various buttons of matching colors to put on the rim to give it a little zip!

3. Then I tied the tag I made by stamping the letter of the utensils that belong in this particular pot (s=spoons, f=forks, k=knives) around the rim as well.  I tied a bow.  Really, you could step any extra decorative steps if you wanted, but I like my things to have a little personality!

 4. Then I added a layer of cork to the bottom with hot glue as well.  This is so that the pots don't slip around or stick to the surface of the buffet upon which these beauties will sit.

 Here's the finished product.  I think they turned out CUTE!  Thanks Pinterest!

Remember to bloom where you are planted!

a new table...

Our other table was lovely and huge.  We were able to sit 12 around it comfortable, when we had room to pull out the leaves and set that many chairs around it.  It measured 69x37 inches without the leaves.  We enjoyed it while it lasted, but when we moved to our new house...we downsized and over the past couple weeks, I realized that it had to go.  If anyone was ever in either the kitchen or living room and someone was sitting at the table, the other would be trapped.  So, we posted it on Craigslist and it found a new home.

So, I bought some wood, glue, screws, stain/sealant and some prefab table legs and I have been working on said table.

I have to top and legs constructed but it still needs to be stained.

  

I had 5 pieces of plain white wood.  I paid attention to the grain pattern and texture as I chose the pieces.  I asked the nice man at Lowes to cut them to 56 inches.  I drilled holes in the sides of the planks of wood and placed dowels and glues them together with wood glue.  For each set of planks, I allowed the glue time to dry before attempting to do the other planks.  This step takes patience and focus because if the wood is warped or you drill the holes cadiwampus, you will have a very uneven surface.  After it all dried, I did have a few uneven edges.  I ended up running back to Lowes to purchase a hand-held plainer.  It took a few times to get the feel for it, but it helped significantly in evening out and smoothing the top.  Then I sanded the entire surface outside with my electric sander (round, bought at Big Lots for 1/2 price, works great!).  After that, I drilled three supports to the underside spaced about every 18 inches or so.  This helps it to be more stable and maintain it's form.  It isn't perfect but it looks pretty darn good! It's now 56x31 inches! That's as far as I got!

I am looking forward to the finished product.  A rustic, homey, pine table with mix-matched chairs where we can enjoy an intimate game of Balderdash or Scrabble!