The most exciting blog post you will ever read.......about shelves....

So a month or two ago I was out and about meeting some friends for lunch and when it came time to leave....the car wouldn't go. It was awesome timing though because Ruby was overdue for a nap and we had friends with us, one of which was only a couple weeks old. So, yeah, super awesome. So, our other friend came back and picked us all up and took us home and Andy borrowed a truck from a friend to come possibly haul the car back to our house. He gets up there and, of course, the car starts right up! So he comes all the way back home to get me so we can get the car. Wow, if you are still reading this, you are either 1) bored to tears 2) my mom.

Anyways, here's what came of this big fiasco. When we went back up there, where were across the street from the greatest store that ever was. IKEA baby! So, after I batted my eyelashes a few times at Andy he agreed we should make the most of having a truck. I mean,  clearly the universe was telling us to buy lots of stuff at Ikea, who am I to argue with that?

So we bought shelving. Man did I take the scenic route to get to that or what? Let's get on the pictures!

Ruby very excited about all the big boxes to crawl on

BEFORE- too small and way too sad of a bookshelf

Okay, so sad little bookshelf needed a new home and I had the perfect place- she is now the new and improved happy craft bookshelf in the back of my closet!

Before- look at all that wasted waste just begging to be used

My own little craft corner...well not a corner...my own little craft cove! I like that even better, it's like where pirates would craft!

So eventually the guest room with be Ruby's room and since it's the way bigger of the two bedrooms then it will also be kinda the playroom as well. So, we wanted mucho shelving for mucho kid stuff. For now it does look kinda empty but when you live in a 1300 square foot house, you don't get "empty" very much so I'm relishing all the empty shelves and completely empty bins. I have zero doubt they will be filled one day with all sorts of blocks, books, art supplies, old pb&j's that I don't find stashed away till I smell them out.....awww....it will be so fun!

Since this room is right next to Ruby's and the tinniest little noise wakes her up we couldn't do any of the assembly while she was asleep. She was not thrilled with the only way we found to contain her while we had tools and tiny little screws she was obsessed with.

Added some fabric to the back for a little fun/we had to rip out the chair rail and I didn't want to fix it

Okay, the 2nd shelf we bought was for our bedroom. We loved our office in there so we needed some more storage space for all our staplers. Love it.

Pinterest Fail

Have ya'll seen this website?
http://www.pinterestfail.com/

It cracks me up and makes me feel better that a good chunk of my projects don't turn out how I imagined them. Here's my most recent one....

Inspiration:
(http://theembellishednest.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/pinterest-challenge-diy-wall-art/)

(http://theembellishednest.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/pinterest-challenge-diy-wall-art/)



Easy right? Tape up a blank canvas and just paint your heart out. Take the tape off and boom you've got yourself a masterpiece!

I will say this, we had some serious fun making it. Thankfully our friends Chez and Eliza came over do it with us. 

Two happy, messy girls

then she crawled out to the yard and started playing in the dirt, i figured what's a little dirt with some paint?

Add caption

our masterpieces! i use the term masterpiece loosely...



So then I peeled the tape off and it wasn't the big reveal I was hoping for. It was u-g-l-y and it didn't have no alibi.

So, a week or so I decided to re-do it. I taped it up again and had a little better idea of what I wanted this time.

better!

her happy home on the mantle

I'm currently working on another pinterest project gone wrong. It's funny how bad this guy has turned out. Can't wait to share another failure with you soon. I've got to go waste another 12 hours on it first though....

He let you do what now?

In a continual effort to be cheap live frugally and have some fun we decided one night that I could cut Andy's hair. He's not much of a hair person anyways and figured if I messed it up too bad he would just shave it. Easy Peasy.

Scruffy before

I went to town- look at all that hair!

Andy wondering why he thought this was a good idea

Taking matters into his own hands

We forgot to take an after picture, so here's the only pic I could find of Andy since the hair cut.

It doesn't look too bad right? Well, that's because it's far away! In certain light I will still see random like 3 inch long hairs sticking up that I missed. Luckily Andy doesn't care and so I think we will probably keep doing it and hopefully I will get a little better. Any one else need a trim?

Home made laundry soap!

So I've had a whole bunch of people ask me for this recipe and since I'm stuck inside all day (38wks pregnant and 109 degrees don't mix so well) and getting a little stir crazy I thought I'd do you all one better and I took some pictures when I made it the other day.

Alrighty, lets get started. Eeek! I'm so excited to show you this cause it WAY easy and WAY WAY cheap.

Okay, so all you need is three ingredients, which are all found on the detergent aisle. Sometimes the Fels Naptha can be hard to find in which case you can just use a bar of Ivory I think


Fels Naptha (what a fun word to say!)
Washing Soda
Borax
You can add essential oils of whatever you like but I really like that super clean, laundry soap smelling goodness so I don't.

1) Grate up bar of fels naptha and add to saucepan with four cups of water. Melt soap down till it completely dissolved on low heat. (You kitchen will smell soapy and super clean!)




2) Okay get your five gallon bucket out, fill it up half way with hot water and pour melted fels naptha into it, along with 1 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax. Having an electrical cord dangerously hanging into your sink is optional, I choose to do so because I live life dangerously ;)

3) Mix it up real good, then once it is dissolved then fill it the rest of the way up, like to the 4 gallon mark and put a lid on it and just let it hang out over night.

4) Okay the next day you will open up the bucket to a fun surprise! Okay, it's not really that fun but kinda cool. The top 6 or so inches turn into a gel-like consistency. Now your job is to break it up, if you are me you get your hands in there and break it up and revel at how "icky" it feels, if you are Andy you attach a grout mixer to a power drill and stir it that way. No wrong way. Just get it all mixed up.

5) Then I funnel it into smaller containers for easier use. Before you use it shake the container each time because it does tend to clump up a little. 1/2 cup for top loaders, 1/4 cup for front loaders.

Goodbye buying laundry soap! Hello saving money, being green, no scary chemicals! Woo to the hoo!