A hairy situation...

okay i'm going to apologize now... cause this one is a little GROSS  but necessary! you know how after a while the brush and roller on the inside of your vacuum get all tangled up with strings pet hair and ahhhhemm... people hair? It's disgusting but what's even worse is trying to pick it all off the roller just so you can finish vacuuming. We'll the last time i had to do this it was one of those situations when i really thought about throwing it across the garage because it was being harder than it needed to be. Then i thought to myself, SELF "what would make this easier and cheaper than just buying a new vacuum every time it gets bogged down." Well it occurred to me today a SEAM RIPPER! 


just flip it over and run the seam ripper horizontally along the roller and once the debris is cut, pull the hair free! Should be SUPER easy :)


do it. it works!

Pesky Plastic Bags!

Ok so i until today have always had this Wal-Mart bag stuffed with Wal-Mart bags in the garage, it gets a little crazy after so many of them. I've never really known what to do with them. BUT I NEED THEM! (for poopy diapers and such) so I looked up ideas for how to store them and what do ya know... its super easy! When its all said and DONE you will have a cute and practical little container for all your bags and when you pull the handle to one the next set of handles is ready for you the next time (just like baby wipes) pretty nifty i think!

First gather up the plethora of bags and an empty (and rinsed out) sanitizing wipes can with the lid.

Then flatten out all the bags, then fold them hot dog style once making sure they are as flat as possible so they will be easy to roll up.

Then lay them one after the other overlapping the bottom portion of the first bag with the handles of the next, and then just simply roll them up like a sleeping bag making sure to squeeze out any left over air.

After the last bag is rolled it should all be pretty tight and the handles from the inside and very first bag should be sticking up. Put the bags into the can and pull the handles out of the top of the lid.

AND THATS IT! unless you wanna go one extra step... simply to make it prettier ha ha buy a little swatch of fabric (i got this one for 99 cents and had left over fabric) Fabric "MOD PODGE" (which i had never even heard of much less used) and a sponge. 

Just place the right size piece of fabric on a piece of wax paper and rub the Mod Podge onto the fabric design side up. Then just let it dry.

After the fabric is dry i took it all outside and sprayed the backside of the fabric with spray adhesive and fastened it to the can and VOILA! DUNZO! The Mod Podge makes things like fabric and paper hard and more durable. Pretty much love it now! :)

Transfering printed letters to wood! This is a good one! :)

Ever wanted a cute little wooden sign that had like your favorite Bible verse, or cute little saying on it but if  your like me you have TERRIBLE handwriting and using stencils are for 1. expensive 2. messy. We'll this is 1. pretty much free 2. Super EASY!

you will need....
1. a piece of wood (whatever you want i just used a little piece from the craft store but you can even use a 2X4 or whatever!
2. A printer
3. Paint!
4. Sponge or brush with water.
5. Painters Tape


STEP.ONE- type what you want in a word document then go to settings and if you have a PC its called make a mirrored image but if you have a Mac you have to "flip image vertically." This will make the phrase print backwards.
STEP.TWO- place phrase INK side down and secure it with painters tape.

STEP.THREE- Wet a sponge then rub it on the paper getting it wet enough that you can see thru it just not too wet or the ink will run. After all the letters are wet blot off the extra water.

STEP.FOUR- Then take the backside of the paint brush or a pen and rub over the letter. Dont push too hard or you will tear the paper of make the ink run. I pull a corner back and check to make sure in rubbing hard enough and not too hard. When you've ran across all the letters simply peel the paper off. If there is excess water just blot it off with a paper towel.

STEP.FIVE- PAINT! Thats it! ITS FALL Y'ALL!

Ps. I included another picture of a sign i did for a friend shout out to my LORD LOVIN LADY JORDAN!!!!!! :) love you!

Autumn Wreath

So seasonal wreaths... something i thought was completely DUMB until i had my own front door! ha Its funny the things you take interest in once you have your own house to decorate. But anyways... my only issue with seasonal wreaths is that when you buy them in a store they aren't always exactly what i want and they are at the least 15 or 20 dollars. We can do cheaper than that! So I started looking into making my own.. well even the foam forms (say that 5 times fast) are like 8 dollars at craft stores for the small ones! So I spent a few days thinking about what you could use instead of an 8 dollar ugly foamy thing from Michael's and it came to me when i browsing the clearance section of Wal-Mart... swimming pool noodles! Now follow me here i do promise it will be pretty in the end but it sure is an ugly start. But you can NOT beat $1.87 over $8.00. So to start you will need THE NOODLE of course and a roll a duct tape... and no for all the smarty pants out there it doesn't need to be turquoise... thats just what we had floating around in the garage.

Then simply just make a circle and duct tape the two ends together! Once your done with that I spray painted mine just because of the sharp contrasting colors... and because i wasnt 100% postitive what i was going to cover it with. I finally decided on burlap and a cute ribbon. I picked up 2 yards of it at the craft store, i also picked up fabric glue thinking that i would use that to glue it around the noodle but in the end i just used a glue gun. GLUE GUNS ROCK! :)

                                

All i did was fold the burlap hot dog style two times and cut into 3 smaller and more manageable strips, then simply just wrapped it around the noodle hot gluing it occasionally. Tie a cute little bow and your done! 

Rustic & Ranchy to Beautiful & Beachy- Antique Paint Job

So a few weeks ago we (Calvary Baptist Church) were paint a house as a service project and the people that owned the house heard we were have a garage sale for our life group to help support a trip to Haiti in January, and they gave us 4 saddles (yes saddles... which are in my garage at the moment waiting to be Craig's listed) and then this rustic looking tri fold room divider. At first i thought i would just sell it all but then i got to looking at the room divider and a friend said she LOVED it so i passed a paint color by her and took it from there.


STEP ONE:
paint- I recently just discovered the "mis-tint" section of any hardware or home improvement store. It's where the rejected and neglected paint gets sent. It was obviously mixed wrong for someone and they didn't like the way it turned out and thus it gets tagged with a big ole clearance sticker and put away on a shelf only to be looked at by cheapo's like ME :) and entire gallon of paint for 5 BUCKS cant beat that! I've started looking at the mis-tints even if i don't have a color in mind just to stock up on a few colors i might would like while they are there.
STEP TWO:
sand- sand off any finish or paint that is left on the piece you are going to paint take off all the hard ware and sand over where the hardware used to be.
STEP THREE:
paint like a three year old- seriously! You know how kids paint with brushes... they are random and aren't very focused on getting coverage everywhere. Dip your brush in the paint but then try to wipe most of it off then make long brush strokes (with the wood grain) not covering the wood with paint. really really important that you paint lightly. Once that layer has dried... do it again and again it may take 4 or 5 coats but if you are doing it right it will have a layered look and you will be able to see the induviual brush strokes but it will still all be covered in the end. With the piece i did i took a little of the blue paint and added a little white just to lighten it up and i took a small like water color brush and made little lines randomly and took the big brush and blended it in. Once you've finished that...
STEP FOUR:
sand again- but this time sand on the corners and places that the piece would be worn if it was really old... like the legs of desks get really worn out from being moved all the time, edges of tables would be worn and if it have handles or drawers they would be worn. I used a sanding block, they are with the sand paper but they are shaped like sponges, they are GREAT for getting into tight spots. Be sure to get a MEDIUM grit. Dont push on the piece too hard when you sand because that will just scratch it instead of wearing the paint. When you have finished the edges give the entire piece a lite sanding all over just to make the paint not look brand spankin new. 
STEP FIVE:
stain and polish: when you sand the edges the wood is going to show thru... thats the whole purpose but the wood might not be the exact color you want so hop on over to lowes and grab a tiny can of stain. In whatever color you like dip a Qtip in it and rub it onto ONLY the wood (not paint) let sit for a few seconds then wipe it off. After all that spray a wood polish (i pick orange glow cause it smells good but use whatever you want) onto a rag and rub the whole piece down :) thats it DONE!

I know it sounds like a lot but don't get intimidated by it because its really hard to mess this one up.. if you don't like the way a patch of the paint looks... sand it off and start again. 

everybody hates brown lettuce!

I KNOW i'm not the only person out there who hates buying a bag of lettuce and 3 days later its all brown and gross looking! EVEN if you zipped it really tight and squeezed all the air out, BROWN! Instead of investing in all those "green smart bags" and what not how bout just an everyday mason jar... not sure how or why it works but IT DOES! Mine has been in there like a week and its still looking good. Plus it looks pretty, doesn't get squished in the crisper drawer and for some reason because its out and looks better in the jar... i have found myself eating it more often lol thats all WINS in my book!

First Christmas!

If you haven't noticed... its wedding season! Well I take that back it seems like wedding season is year round. But recently there has been invitation after invitation delivered to the Pope house, and well this is where the blogs purpose will come in. 


For some strange reason I can't just be the person that goes to Bed Bath And Beyond and JUST PICK SOMETHING off of the couples registry for some reason my mind has to make things harder than they need to be. Just recently I have become obsessed with getting the couple something a little more personal. I decided that a blender or bath mat just isn't what i want to do for them. (ps. whoever got Caleb and I our blender.. if you are reading this.. we LOVE it just want to make that clear ha ha) but if i could go to my wedding shower again and someone got us something that we needed then something more personal that they put less money and more just LOVE and THOUGHT into.. well I would just eat that up! Its funny how the small things made by hand are the most precious. Out of all the things Caleb and I were blessed with (and we were blessed beyond measure at our wedding) my most favorite thing is a BEAUTIFUL cutting board my father made me. But enough with the babbling on and on...


this is an easy one! 
1. Simply just wait for the beautiful wedding invitation to come in the mail
2. Then... CUT IT INTO PIECES! We'll in a nice orderly way of course, it is a wedding invitation for Petes Sake! :) I used a straight edge cutter from scrapbooking so that i could be sure and get a straight edge and get all the names and words in the individual strips.
3. Then simply wrap it around a pen to make it curl nicely, and twist them piece by piece into the ornament.
4. Tie a cute little ribbon or even a tag that says FIRST CHRISTMAS on top that matches the font on the invitation.


andddd VOILA! Thats it! Something that the Bride will LOVE and the groom will... well... he probably wont care but thats why they aren't even invited to the Bridal showers! :) te he he 

simple.pretty.thoughtful.