Bathroom Mirror

Without getting into too much detail about the foreclosed home my wife and I purchased last year, let me just say that there were many issues that came up with the house before we finally decided to go for it. I'm happy to say that most of the unknown issues ended up having "best case scenario" resolutions, but it was a stressful time nonetheless.

One of the smaller, yet extremely frustrating, issues that we experienced was that even after we were under contract to buy the home (meaning that nobody else could purchase the home unless we decided to drop out), every time we went to visit the house, something else was missing!

One time it was the shower head in the master bathroom. The next time, it was the stove in the kitchen! The next time it was the mirror over the sink in the half bath!! The only people who had keys to the house at this point were our realtor and the property management company, and the property management company said there was no way they could tell who had been in the house because they used the same exact key for every property all over the city!! Grrr.

...this is raising my blood pressure. I need to move on...

Here is the little project that my wife did to resolve the issue of not having a mirror in the half bath downstairs. She found this unique little mirror at a craft store in town:

The only problem with it is that my wife hates gold...anything. So we took off the back and removed the mirror. Then we spray painted it a glossy black, let it dry and put the mirror back in. Now it hangs proudly in the previously unoccupied space in our half bathroom.

Much better than the vacancy that previously adorned that wall over the sink. :)

Chalkboard Wall!

When I was in elementary school, there was a small flower shop at the bottom of our street, along with a few other small stores. Two of my older brothers were playing behind those stores when they discovered that the dumpster behind the flower shop was filled with flowers! They must have been too old to sell (the flowers...not my brothers), and while most of the flowers were falling apart or dead already, my brothers managed to salvage 5 or 6 dozen flowers, mostly roses. They took the flowers home and set them all over the house for my mom. Cool, right? My mom obviously thought they stole them until she heard the story. 

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that dumpster diving can be an effective means of showing your affection to those you love by acquiring things for them that they value more than the people who threw them away. More on this later...

I am personally a big fan of this most recent project of my wife's. She has been interested in painting something in our house with chalkboard paint for quite some time now. First it was the refrigerator. Then it was the kitchen table. We don't own a particularly nice fridge or kitchen table, so I was actually pretty open to it.

Then she settled on this:

This is the left wall of our dining room, and to the left is the kitchen. This wall is also shared by the pantry. After much deliberation about what she would paint to look like a chalkboard, she was determined to do this wall. It wasn't until after the wall was painted that it occurred to us that it's actually about the same size as a chalkboard. 

Here's a view from the front.

The washed out square in the middle of the chalkboard wall (keep in mind that I take all of these pictures with my smart phone when my wife isn't looking) is a picture frame with nothing in it. In reference to the story I told at the beginning of this post, I actually found that frame in our neighbors garbage can when I was taking my own garbage out late one night. It didn't have any glass or anything, and it was a glossy black. I didn't have to dive into any dumpsters for this prize, but it goes to show that a little care and creativity can extend the life of something that otherwise might have been considered disposable.

It's fun for me to watch a transformation take place in a part of our house that I wouldn't have given much notice otherwise. Although it just occurred to me we're probably going to have to paint over this again eventually when we sell our house. Yikes.

Little Girl's Purse

Here's an interesting little bit of information about my wife. For the six years that we've been married, I've watched her take on creative projects, sometimes intentionally initiating a pre-meditated project, and sometimes carrying them out on a whim. She has learned how to do so many new things. She's gone out of her comfort zone. She's failed a few times here and there, but she is constantly producing wonderfully creative things to make life more practical or just plain more enjoyable. 

However, every once in awhile I hear her reflect out loud about how she wishes she were more creative, or generally more competent at things she is already great at, like being a mother. With all of this goodness coming out of one person, I don't understand how she can feel this way. Therefore, I started this blog. Behind her back. :)

I know most normal people feel similarly at times, but I hope to show this blog to her someday and help soften the occasional feelings of inadequacy that seem to afflict us all now and then. 

Anyway...

I must admit that I don't get especially excited about some of the girly stuff my wife creates, but I can genuinely say that I am still impressed enough to take the time to post about it. My three-year old daughter didn't waste any time becoming a girly-girl. She loves to use Mom's shoes, headbands, lip gloss, cell phone, and especially...her purse.

My wife was already experimenting with a pattern for a purse she had found for herself when she decided she would make a mini-version for our daughter. 

What I didn't think to do when I was secretly taking this picture (in our bathroom upstairs while my wife was cooking dinner) was to include an object in the picture that would give you an indication of the size of this purse. Since I don't want to risk getting caught taking another picture with my phone, imagine that it's just big enough to fit a DVD inside. 

Unfortunately, I know absolutely nothing about the pattern she used or where she got it, but I'm sure you could Google a good pattern in minutes.

Here's a view of the inside from the top:

She used a different, floral-patterned fabric for the inside of the purse, and if you didn't notice at first glance, she even included a tiny little pocket on the inside that is the perfect size for one of my wife's old cell phone's. Now that's going the extra mile! :)

Babysitter Information Sheet

I realize I have the most uninventive and dull titles when I post on this blog, but the reason is that I want people to be able to find some of these things when they do a typical search in their browser. Forgive my practicality and venture on into the actual content for the inventiveness.

Sometimes I don't even realize my wife has made some cool stuff, and then it comes out of nowhere! For example, a few weeks ago we were about to leave the house for our weekly date night (well, almost weekly...let's be honest; it's hard to get out weekly). After I needlessly explained to the 14-year old babysitter how to use the TV, my wife whipped out this masterpiece:

When my wife turned her back to show the sitter the upstairs, I took out my phone and took a picture of this bad boy. One sheet of paper that has everything you need a babysitter to know. Complete with our plans, contact information, emergency contact information, do's and don'ts, etc. In case you didn't deduce the blacked out content at the top of the two columns, that's where the children's names are, and their age is what's in parenthesis. 

I've always been perfectly content writing a few important notes down on a post-it note when the babysitter comes, but I leave it to my wife to make things easier, safer, and a little cooler.

Little Chef Birthday Party

I don't really mean to, but I start to laugh every time a birthday comes up for one of the kids and my wife says something like, "Let's just have a simple birthday party this year."

Take my daughter's two-year birthday party. Since we already know we got her a play kitchen for her birthday, wouldn't it be cute to have her and her little friends come over and wear little chef hats while they play?

Why yes, that would be cute.

But then, of course, there has to be cake for the little chefs to eat.

And they'll need something to wash down the cake with.

And some simple homemade decorations...

but it would be so cruel to not make the kids party favors. :(

There we go. That's about right for a nice, simple birthday party. Oh wait, what if the birthday girl had her own little mini apron to go with her chef hat?! That would be so adorable.

I can't wait to see what my wife comes up with when she finally decides to go all out...instead of this simple stuff. :)

Sewing Organization

I am about as close as you can get to being six feet tall...without actually being six feet tall. I consider being (almost) six feet tall pretty average these days. However, I have the hardest time finding shirts that fit me because I have a long and slender torso, long arms, and a long, skinny neck. For as long as I can remember, I've had dress shirts in my closet that didn't quite fit me. If it was long enough for me to tuck in, the neck was too large (I suppose under the assumption that most men with long torsos have large necks); and if it was skinny enough for me around the neck, the sleeves were too short (men with skinny necks obviously must have short arms); and if it was long enough in the arms, it was too large around the mid-section (you guessed it, men with long arms presumably have larger guts).

After about four years of being married and just a few months after my wife really started getting into sewing, I had a brilliant idea! I grabbed three of my dress shirts from the closet that I've had for the longest time but practically never wear, and I asked her if she could take them in. She had never done that before, but it seemed easy enough. We had ourselves a fitting right there in our bedroom.

Fifteen minutes later, I had three new dress shirts that fit me perfectly. 

Speaking of sewing...my wife's sewing things have been stuffed in large bins and small cans all over our closet for the longest time, and her sewing machine was always tucked away until she needed it. Unfortunately, the thought of pulling everything out to work on a project discouraged my wife from sewing more than anything else. It wasn't even the difficulty of the projects she wanted to work on...it was the preparation. 

So, she found an old shelf, some empty baby food jars, and some hooks. 

She screwed three hooks into the bottom of the left side of her shelf and then screwed the lids of the baby food jars into the bottom of the right side. 

Now she has had to think of new reasons not to begin working on her sewing projects. :)

Chevron Table Top or Chalkboard Table Top?

Our kitchen table and the chairs around it are cousins. They share similar genes, but the comes from different family lines. They aren't a matching set, and while they are both wood, the colors and styles are slightly different. I'm not sure that anybody visiting our home has ever mentioned that our chairs and table don't match, but I guess that doesn't mean they haven't noticed. At least, that's what my wife would say.

So she painted it. 

Just the top, to divert attention away from the fact that the surface was noticeably lighter than the chairs touching it. She couldn't decide between two options:

#1 - Chalkboard paint; so we could write notes on it, and my daughter could draw on the table with chalk. 

#2 - Chevrons; because it would be hip (she didn't actually use that word).

Drumroll please....

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(I didn't want to spoil the surprise...keep scrolling)

Jewelry Box...or Board

Is it worth crediting Pinterest for inspiring ideas when I have no idea who the original post came from? Probably not, but nonetheless, my wife got this idea from someone on Pinterest. It's basically a jewelry board for easy access to her most frequently used jewelry. She decided to make one for her necklaces and bracelets, and another for her earrings.

Both boards use picture frames that have been tucked away for awhile. But of course, she wanted them the same color and she wanted them turquoise. For the larger board, she took an old packing box and used the cardboard to place behind the frame. Before putting the cardboard in, she wrapped it in some simple fabric she already had on hand. Then she stuck some fat pins into the cardboard to hang her bracelets on.

My wife has a thing for knobs. I have a feeling it's not just my wife, but she can't resist purchasing a unique or especially pretty knob when she comes across one. The knobs are placed through six holes she drilled into the bottom of the picture frame. Here are the six she chose to use.

And here's a close-up of the smaller frame for earrings. She used cardboard and a canvas-like fabric for the back, and then added some little screw-in hooks and wire from a picture hanging kit for the earrings to hang on.

Of course now she'll need to figure out where to put the myriad of expensive jewelry and diamonds I bestow upon her regularly. :)

Baby Boots & Shoes

Now, I just want to be clear that the purpose of this blog is to shamelessly brag about how my wife is awesome and does fun and creative stuff. You may see something and think, "I wish I knew how she did that," or "Why didn't he include any instructions?"

The reason I don't include any instructions is two-fold: 

1. Like I said, I'm just bragging.

2. I have no idea how she did some of this stuff, and to my knowledge, my wife still doesn't know that I'm blogging about her coolness.

With that said, the Mrs. started learning how to really sew about 2-3 years ago, soon after my daughter was born. To be honest, she wasn't very good. However, she started with simple projects that came with simple patterns (and she would call her mother for help translating sewing patterns into plain English). Once she figured out how to follow a pattern, she started experimenting with more complex projects. 

Her first "major" sewing project was making these babies.

She found a pattern online for $15 and went to town. If I were to guess, I would say these boots probably took her at least 10 hours of work over a week or more. I can remember a couple of times when she would think she was almost done with a section before she realized she had sewn something on backwards or missed a step.

But she kept with it and finally finished. She was obviously satisfied enough with the results that she tried a few more.

And after she figured the boots out, she decided to try shoes.

I think she found the pattern to these shoes online for free, but I can't be sure. Eventually she was able to whip up a pair of baby boots or shoes in two hours (a far cry from the original 10+ hours), and she decided she would start selling them on Etsy and at local farmer's markets and make a little business out of it. However, it only took a few weeks before she realized that, at least for her, making these boots and shoes for money made it lose its intrinsic value, or the inherent enjoyment she got from doing the project. What used to be an enjoyable creative outlet was now a job.

So she stopped.

Well, she stopped selling them anyway. Now she just makes boots and shoes for the occasional baby shower.

If you're really interested in knowing more about the pattern she used for these, I can probably look through her sewing stuff and find more information. Otherwise, it would probably be more effective to google it. :)

Non-toxic (and cute) Cleaning Supplies

Neither of us ever really put much thought into what we were using to clean our house until we had baby #1. Now that we're on baby #2, I'm the only one who doesn't put much thought into what we are using to clean our house. My wife, on the other hand, started experimenting with more kid-friendly cleaning supplies.

Her first love in this regard was the Method brand of cleaning products. Their products were non-toxic, seemed to work very well, and they smelled great (a big bonus for my wife). While I'm sure she's still a fan, she stopped buying method when she began experimenting with cleaning supplies you can prepare at home using simple and inexpensive ingredients. Oh, and then of course she wanted them to look pretty, so she made her own labels.

The laundry detergent is simply Borax (a self proclaimed "laundry booster"), washing soda (Arm & Hammer) and a Fels Naptha soap bar grated over a cheese grater. I believe she gets all of these in the laundry section of Wal-Mart.

The "recipes" for some of the other home-made products she uses the most are listed below.

All-purpose cleaner:

• 2 Cups hot water
• 1/2 Tbs Mrs. Meyer's All-Purpose Cleaner (not completely organic, but the ingredients are 98% naturally derived)
• 1 Tbs Borax

Carpet Cleaner: 

• 1 Tbs Borax
• 2/3 Cup warm water

Stain Remover:

• 1 Cup Hydrogen Peroxide
• 1 Tbs Dawn dish soap

Glass Cleaner: 

• 1 Cup water
• 1 Cup vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Meyer's 

The thing I admire about my wife with regard to this posting is that she has learned to take monotonous and undesirable tasks (aka, cleaning/laundry) and make it at least a little more positive. She gets satisfaction out of the fact that she's keeping our home environment a little safer, saving a little money, and being a little creative in the process. 

27 Birthdays

There is no limit to my wife's creativity when it comes to special occasions, especially birthdays. Not only does she take the time to do things that let us know that our birthday is important to her, but she also thinks of creative things that demonstrate just how much thought she has put into making our birthdays special.

For my 27th birthday (a work day, unfortunately), I woke up to my three favorite breakfast foods: french toast, sausage, and whipped cream.

Peaches are also my favorite fruit, but I don't consider them a breakfast food. :) I think she used her Cricut cutter machine to cut out the "27" and then sprinkled powdered sugar over the top.

When I went back upstairs to get ready for work, I couldn't very well get to the sink to do much.

In the backpack that I take to work, I found two different treats. First, a couple of bags with 27 of my two favorite candies.

and second, 27 chocolate chip cookies (you guessed it, my favorite).

Midway through my workday, I walked up to my desk to find the following envelope (delivered to my desk by a mutual friend that works for the same company I do):

27 love notes. Some were thoughtful. Some were funny. Some were drawings from my 2 year-old. All were sincere, and all meant a great deal to me because she took the time to express her love in a way that required a little more time and effort than just saying the words...although she did that, too. :)

2012 Homemade Planner

My wife is easily the most organized person I know. She thinks it's normal and that it's easy, but I've actually heard somebody ask her if they could hire her to help them organize their house. Over the years, she has tried multiple variations of day planners to help her plan and organize her life. The problem is that she has never found a planner that had what she wanted, and over time she has developed criteria for a planner that has yet to be satisfied by anything off the shelf.

So, she made her own.

Upon looking at this first picture, I can imagine you might have thought, "Wow, that's big." Well, that is intentional. One of the criteria she has developed for a planner is enough space to consolidate many things in one place. For example, when you flip to the first page of her new planner, you see this.

Birthdays. We're horrible at remembering birthdays. My family is huge, so that doesn't help.  She wanted to have a page where she could put everybody's birthday in one, accessible place. Oh, but there's so much more she wanted in a planner. Flip to the next page, where the monthly planning begins, and you'll see this.

Goals and notes. It's really important to both of us to have spiritual goals and everyday goals to motivate us to live a meaningful life. I don't track my goals...I just like to think they happen over time. :) She wants to be able to set goals and gain the satisfaction of meeting them (hence the weekly checklists). You'll notice that there are only enough check boxes for one week. That's because directly below this page is the following:

The week. When building her template for the weekly page, she typed in only the things that she knew were constant every week. Everything else, including the dates, she hand writes in when she gets to that week. Each weekly view that you see here is accompanied by the monthly goals and notes page above. So, at the beginning of every week, she is forced to go back to the week before to review what her monthly goals are in order to write them down for the next week. Brilliant!

This planner was the result of many purchased planners that didn't satisfy her requirements for good organization and planning. She created these four pages using Microsoft Word and printed them all at home -- 54 pages total (52 weeks in the year, plus the birthdays page and the cover page). Then she took her pages to Office Depot to get them bound together with a simple plastic cover.

In the end, I believe it costed her less than $10 total (not counting the cost of ink from our own printer...not sure how much that would amount to), and she got exactly what she wanted. :)

One Man's Trash is Another Girl's Dress

I am the 8th of 9 kids in my family. I remember one time growing up when I grew out of one of my pairs of shoes and finally convinced my mother that I would need new ones. She took me to her storage closet in the basement and pulled out a trash bag FILLED with shoes. Some were hand-me-downs, some were from garage sales, and some were brand spanking new (the strange-looking rejects on the clearance rack at department stores). Besides the fact that I didn't like a single pair of the shoes in that bag, none of them fit me. Nonetheless, those were my choices, so she suggested picking the pair that was closest to my size. Let's just say my old pair of shoes didn't seem so small after all.

This story has almost nothing to do with this blog post except to illustrate the fact that I come from frugal roots, and I find great satisfaction in re-purposing something that I have no need for anymore. I know there are lots of tutorials for how to make cool stuff with an old t-shirt, so I'm not including any instructions, but here are a couple of things the Mrs. has done to re-purpose old stuff:

This is from an old blue t-shirt of mine. I believe she even cut the collar and bird out of an old pale yellow t-shirt and hand-stitched the legs with some yarn she had on hand.

 

Baby formula canisters, scrapbook paper and Mod Podge:

I'm not quite sure, but these leggings my daughter is wearing either came from some old women's leggings (referring to the leggings as old, not the women) or tube socks:

I don't know if this constitutes "re-purposing" something old into something new, but my wife made this headband (and a matching one for herself) out of a few scraps of lace she had from another project.

 There are actually quite a few other things I can think of that my wife has done to re-purpose used items, but I could find any pictures of them...and nobody wants to read a blog without pictures. :)