Repurposed Nightstand

My husband is always poking fun at my picky great taste in decorating our little house. He finds it incredulous that I will live in an empty house rather than decorate it with anything I do NOT love. I am one of those crazy people that believes you should surround yourself with things you love, have meaning, are aesthetic, practical, and can be well loved. Which has made "decorating" really hard. I have shopped at ridiculously overpriced furniture shops, and have found things I liked... But not loved. So being me, a crazy DIY-er, I began buying up furniture a few years back off of Craigslist (Yes, there was a big DIY community in the blogging world long before Pinterest lol!). :) It had to be real, sturdy hard wood, with beautiful details, and the potential to be a perfect fit for my heart's desire. I now have a small collection of ugly brown antique furniture that has been just waiting for me to have the time and room to give them new life. And by the grace of God, I have recently acquired a little of both. My sweet husband is very relieved happy to finally start seeing furniture in the house. However, until I finish all the major pieces; I won't hang anything on the walls. This is probably the bane of his existence. Thankfully, he loves me more than picture frames. :)

This is the nightstand I scored for like no money, and it had no knobs.

Desperately needing some TLC

After some sanding, primer, paint, glaze, sealant, new hardware, and love... This is what I now have!

My taste exactly, loving it!

I LOVE it more than anything I could buy, even from potterybarn (and I freakin' love PB!!)!! It matches my taste perfectly! And that hubby loves that it cost him almost nothing except patience. Well, maybe he does mind all that patience. ;)

SO, all you picky awesome decorators; never underestimate the power of working with your hands to create something so perfectly you. :)

A 'lil Minnie Mouse Party Decor!

  The Banner

Part of the Banner hanging at the Party! :)

The Banner took the MOST time... Now if you have a Cricut or something similar, this should take you no time at all, but if you're like me and don't.... Get ready to put in some hours lol! I printed off A mickey mouse head online to use as my template and then traced it on to an old cereal box. After cutting it out I traced it onto some black felt. Cutting out all the felt is what took the MOST time, so cozy up next to your hubby and use your womanly wiles to talk him into helping you. :) I promise this really helps speed things up haha! 

Then after I had all the heads cut out I used some Iron On Letters for the wording! After ample cooling time, go ahead and cut little slits through the ears for hanging purposes. And then last but not least, whip up some little bows for each of those darling minnie mouse heads! :) All done! :)

Now hindsight is 20/20, so here are some little tips that I would have done differently if I were to make another one. Apparently Iron-On letters are RIDICULOUSLY expensive, and that costed me WAY more than I originally wanted to spend. So here is another route you may want to try if you are wanting to be a little more cost effective. Instead of felt use black cardstock, and this probably wayyyy easier to cut anyways lol (ps if you have the Cricut, this is a GREAT time to use it). Instead of iron-on letters use some punch out letters from your local teacher tools store. You can just hotglue them onto the cardstock. I still think this route would be just as cute and SO much cheaper than the felt, but if you just LOVE the fabric look than by all means jump right on in! :)

The Banner shortly after Completion!

I hope this helps with a banner idea at your next Mickey/Minnie Birthday Party! :)

THE Ears! 

The Birthday Girl rocking those Ears! :)

The Minnie Mouse ears took no time at all!!! 

What you need:

A Sheet of Foam (from your local craft store)

Hot Glue & Gun

Black Headband

Black Felt

Wired Pink Ribbon

Cut four circles out of the foam that are just a smidge smaller than the size you would like for the ears. You tell how technical this is because I just used a cup from the kitchen to trace my circles lol! :) The next part is where you are going to have to eyeball it a bit. Line up two of your circles across from eachother on the felt and then sick your headband in the middle. Now trace a "figure eight" from this, leaving enough slack for them to wrap around the headband in the middle. Also leave a little room around the foam for gluing the opposing pieces of felt together; then cut out another pair. After both have been cut go ahead and glue the foam together, two circles per ear. And then glue the two foam pairs to the two pieces of identical felt cut outs. Now all you have to do is glue the middle part of the felt to the headband and adjoin the the ears together. Do this for both ears and you have some Mickey Mouse ears!!! To make them Minnie, toss on a Bow!!! :) Sorry I didn't have pictures to follow this up, but you can always shoot me some questions if you have them! :)

My 'lil Cutie modeling THE Ears too! :)

I hope my little ears find their way into your next Mickey/Minnie party! :) If you wanna have a lot of fun make enough for all your guests, I am sure you could get a TON of cute and hilarious pics! :)

Happy Crafting!!!

Parties: Easy Table Decor!

One of my favorite parts of party planning is the table decorations. I love being innovative! And I really LOVE saving money! :) Instead of breaking the bank with cupcake stands and such, I went ahead and thought a little outside the box. 

The Cupcake Stand

This was the easiest decoration to make, and it really does it job well! :) You can find about a million tutorials on other blogs showing you how to make one. So I will keep my explanation simple and short. :) A few cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, and your embellishments are all you need! :) If you have a cricket at your disposal this would be a great time to put it to work! :) I used hot glue to help keep them stacked, but since it is wrapping paper, I handled it very carefully so it wouldn't tear or rip. 

The Lollipop Stand

The Lollipop Stand was super super easy to make. All you need is some styrofoam, wrapping paper, a hot glue gun, and tape. The styrofoam that I found at Michaels was perfect in size but wasn't deep enough to hold up the lollipops efficiently so I bought two and hot glued them together. That created the perfect depth! :) You could make really long ones, tall ones, lots of individual short ones, the possibilities are endless! :)  Once you are done assembling your styrofoam base go ahead and wrap it up with the wrapping paper and stick in the yummy goodness! :) You could also add ribbon, lettering, etc. Go crazy with it! :)

**Note: Styrofoam sheds like crazy, if you have a baby I would make sure to craft with it somewhere the baby won't pick up the shavings off the floor or vacuum immediately after crafting.**

Vases

Vases can be pretty pricey, but I found these super cheap ($4 a pop) at Michaels, and just a little ribbon seems to tie them in perfectly with the table. :) Easy peasy!

I hope my little tips today helped give you an idea or two for your next event! If so, I would LOVE to hear about it! :)

Backdrops: Amazing & Affordable!

I hope all of you were able to check out Grace's First Birthday post and I hope it brought a smile to your face! :) Well on today's "Nifty Nook" post I wanted to share how I created the backdrops for her party. I just LOVE backdrops!!! They seem to give parties that extra little something! :)

Now finding a perfect backdrop and then hanging it can be daunting especially when it's your first party! Fortunately I have lived to tell the tale, and am excited to share the easy answer with you!

First off, I cannot put enough emphasis on preparing in advance! :) Since I started shopping early I was able to get some GREAT deals! :) Try to get an early start if possible. :)

A lot of people use flat sheets for their party backdrops and I have seen them displayed beautifully, but goodness the contraptions they have to build to get them to hang seemed a little bulky and time consuming (especially if you are throwing the party in a rented facility). And the sheets can really get expensive! So that got me thinking outside of the box...

While my friend Lauren and I were walking around Target trying to find some reasonably priced sheets we stumbled upon some shower curtains that were on SALE! :) And that was the deal of the day for me!

Room Essentials @ Target

They (the Room Essentials Shower Curtains @ Target) are usually priced at 9.99 but since it was towards the end of the college dorm promo I got them a little cheaper.

Okay, so you are thinking awesome! What a perfect backdrop! But wait... It gets better! The curtains run 72" in width, perfect to match any 6 foot table! Which was an exact match for the tables we were using at the party! :)

Well, now that we have the "perfect" backdrop we need to be able to hang it easily and efficiently.

Since our backdrop moonlights also as a shower curtain, it has perfectly spaced holes at the top meant for hooks. We are going to take advantage of those, but instead of shower hooks we are going to use command hooks. Target sells quite a few hooks that coordinate with their shower curtains and they match perfectly (can it get any easier?!) :)

I found mine @ Target in Pink & Green, but other stores probably sell them also! :)

So now you have your backdrop & hooks, we are ready to Party! 

About 40 minutes before your shindig begins start hanging your command hooks, my husband for the most part eyeballed the spacing; but I would suggest using a tape measurer and a level unless you too are gifted spatially. :)

After hanging the hooks, you can start ironing out and lightly starching (for really tough wrinkles) the backdrops.

The hooks only need 30 minutes of dry time (if you are using 6 or more hooks per curtain) so you can begin hanging the curtains pretty soon after you iron them perfect! :)

The take down is super easy and they leave no trace or damage, and best of all... Everything is RE-usable! :)

I hope this post makes planning your next party a little easier and affordable! If it does, please tell me about it, I always LOVE feedback! :)

Hooray for Baking Soda!

 

Today on The Nifty Nook I wanted to talk about one of my new adventures, "Green Cleaning." :) Since I am almost always in an arm's length distance of Grace it is really important to me that all of the cleaners I use in the house don't produce toxic odors for her little nose. Baking Soda has been a major favorite of mine lately! LOVING that stuff! :) I have used it to clean my stove, disposal, sink, and any cookware that gets food caked on it. I want to share these little tips with you, in case you have little ones or are just interested in being "Green."


Stove Top (Burners): I love a CLEAN stove top! I almost always have to have a clean stove top before I cook haha. What I do is easy and very effective. Simply remove the burners and give them a light rinse and sprinkle them with Baking Soda I usually let it sit for a bit then I gently scrub them clean with steel wool. One more rinse to remove the Baking Soda and then I let them air dry. Wal-aah! All done! :) Just pop them back in and you are ready to rock and roll! :)

Garbage Disposal: About every 2-3 weeks I "deep" clean our disposal. Go ahead and pour 1/2 a cup of baking soda down the disposal and then pour 1 cup of white vinegar in after it. Quickly put in the stopper (if you have a double sink do both) and listen to it's magical cleaning sounds. :) While the Baking Soda and Vinegar are doing their thing put a medium sized pot of water onto boil. Once you get a nice consistent boil unstop the drain(s) and pour in the water. After I let the disposal cool, I run about a cup and a half of ice thru the disposal (with the sink running). Now you should have an amazingly clean disposal! Yay! I run the ice through at least once a week, especially if I have taken advantage of the  disposal the past couple of days lol!

Sink: When I clean my sink I usually use Baking Powder as a first step. I simply wet down the sink, sprinkle the Baking Soda around, lightly scrub it, and then let it sit for a few minutes. After a quick rinse I move onto the rest of my sink cleaning routine. :) Easy Peasy!

Cookware: Every so often you have that one dish that looks like it is going to be a major PAIN to clean. Simply sprinkle on a little Baking Powder and let it help you take some ease out of your elbow grease! :)

Feel free to comment below or email me if any of these Baking Soda tips work for you, I would love to know! :) And since I am constantly trying out different cleaning products and different "Green" cleaning methods please share with me your finds! I would LOVE it! :) Especially if you have a "green" Oven cleaning recipe! :)

Lots of Love! Hope you enjoyed today's post! :)