I Can Find The Time

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Mudroom Reveal

Oh, Yea! The mudroom is done! Life is good! Mamma is happy!

(p.s. this room is only possible because I convinced my husband to move the washer and dryer upstairs to an unused closed in the unused guest room. Unused closet you say? Is there such a thing?!?! Not really, but I hid all that junk somewhere else to convince him we could move the laundry upstairs! Score! Now I actually enjoy doing laundry and call that room the "laundry room". The kids and I are in sync on the new name...hubs just rolls his eyes.)

Like most of you I have a tiny room between the garage and the rest of the house. They call it a laundry room...but I can it a IHateEverythingAboutThisRoom room. It has three doors, one linen closet, no windows, and more plumbing and electrical outlets than probably should be crammed into such a tiny space. We had our washer and dryer there for the first 3 years we have lived here...and I have hated every stinking day of it!

The door to the hallway is always open and takes up about 6" of precious space doing absolutely nothing!!!

The door to the garage is always being used and swings so close to the washer that the linen closet hidden behind it is practically unusable.

The front loader washing machine and dryer are so much bigger than whatever sized machines this tiny room was build for 22 years ago that they have to sit right in the middle of the room so the doors don't hit them. And they stick out past the edge of the doors so you have to swing your hips around them when walking by.

There is plumbing for a utility sink...but there's no way that's happening with this washer and dryer!

Long story short...THIS ROOM SUCKED!

But...

Not anymore!

Now it's a planked wall and practical storage beauty!

Now it serves a purpose that helps our family EVERY DAY!

Now it houses our command center that might just get me on track with this whole "3 kids" thing!

Now it makes me smile! And now sometimes I go in there to sit and enjoy the space instead of curse under my breath every time I walk by!

I'm still working out the storage bin situation...and got a way cuter laundry hamper...but you get the jist. The room is glorious and worth every penny it took to move the laundry upstairs!!!

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2 comments

Categories

DIY, Home Decor, organize

Author

Kathryn

Headband Storage from Shipping Material

Since my oldest daughter has recently become pretty OBSESSED with headbands I really needed a storage solution for her ever growing collection. There are lots of DIY options out there, but here is one that is super easy and repurposes something that would otherwise end up in the landfills.

For this project you'll need:

large cardboard tube (mine is from ordering a rug online)

fabric

batting

ribbon

hot glue gun

First you'll need to cut your tube to the size you want. Mine is about a foot long, but it really doesn't matter.

Next, cover the tube in one layer of batting using your glue gun.

Then cover the tube in one layer of fabric using your glue gun.

Fold the edges of the fabric into the tube and glue down (I found that using a spoon to press the fabric into the hot glue was a good way to avoid burns!)

You could be done right here, but I didn't like the way you could see the inside of the tube and the edges of the fabric...so I cut a pice of white cardstock to fit inside the tube and glued it into place. I used cardstock instead of fabric so it would be stiff and have a crisp edge.

Now cut your length of ribbon and tie it into a loop through the tube.

That's it! An easy project (and gift idea) that repurposes a potential trash item into beautiful and functional storage. I will be making a bunch more of these for all the little girls on my Christmas list!

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4 comments

Categories

DIY, Gift, Jewelry, Kids, organize

Author

Kathryn

Recover plain Wal-Mart storage bin

Since I've been working on finishing my daughters' rooms with as many DIY and re-purposing projects as possible I wanted to get this one out as soon as it was done so hopefully someone else to can use this idea.

My kids rooms have quite a few bins that we use to store all sorts of items. In the baby's room we use them for diapers, small and large blankets, toiletries, and pretty much anything else that fits! I like using this type of storage since it's easy to access with one hand on a squirming child, and can be changed out at any time.

This isn't much of a tutorial, more if an idea suggestion:

Don't pass up on a sturdy storage bin because the fabric is bad!

I bought quite of few of these metal framed storage bins...

...from Wal-Mart before my oldest daughter was born and have used them in her room ever since. But now that we are settled in our new house and I'm actually decorating the kids rooms, the plain primary color canvas material had to go!

Here's a speedy tutorial to show you how quick this project is

First, take off the old covers and rip out the Velcro strips
(see how good and sturdy that wire frame is!)

Seam rip the four side seams, but keep the bottom attached. Fold the fabric in half and trace a pattern onto craft paper

Cut out a new cover in pretty fabric

(make sure that fabric is folded in half)

Sew all four side seams together

Put the new cover onto the metal frame and mark and resew in the Velcro that came with the original bin

And just like that I re-purposed some ugly storage bins into beautiful "Baby Girl" bins. So easy, and so much prettier!

Keep this in mind the next time you see a storage bin that has a sturdy frame...and just ask yourself "Can I tear that apart and recover it?"

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4 comments

Categories

DIY, Home Decor, Kids, organize, sewing

Author

Kathryn

Toy Storage with Plastic Window

If any of you have kids then you definitely have toys all over the place! We have a 3 year old and 1 year old girls and the toys are out of control.

My oldest has recently started getting dress up dolls and she loves them. I'm glad she is getting into more 'story telling' types of toys, but the small pieces are such a mess. And they come in these cute wooden storage dishes, but they are not at all practical and the pieces are constantly spilling all over the place. Not to mention how potentially dangerous this is now that Baby-zilla is roaming around and loves to put everything in her mouth. So I had to come up with a way to store her dress up dolls that kept them away from the baby, but allowed my 3 year old to still play with them. My solution is:

Toy Storage Bags with Plastic Windows

I love this idea for her dress up dolls, but it could be adapted for any type of toy. And since you can make any size bag the options are endless!

Here the supply list:

Fabric

Plastic sheeting/fabric

(I got mine for $2.79/yd at Hobby Lobby in the home décor section)

elastic or cording

sewing supplies

First you'll have to decide what size bag you'll need. I just measured the doll in this play set and added about two inches to the height. It's not an exact science so just go with what works for your toys. Here is the drawing I made of the bag I wanted to make to make sure I cut the right sized pieces.

I choose to place my plastic window toward the bottom of the bag so you could clearly see all the dress up pieces that come with this toy. You can place it anywhere you'd like based on the toy you are working with.

Next, you'll need to cut the fabric and plastic. Based on your measurements you'll need one piece of plastic for the window, one large solid piece of fabric for the back, and 4 smaller pieces of fabric to 'frame' the plastic in the front.

Now for the sewing. I have never sewn with this plastic sheeting stuff and here are some tips I learned:

GO SLOW! I didn't have any problems with my needle going through the plastic while sewing slowly.

When pinning the plastic to the fabric place the pins PARALLEL to the seam, not perpendicular like you'd normally do. This makes sure that you don’t have a hole in the plastic that is visible outside the seam.

All my seams involving the plastic were sewn with the fabric on the bottom. Even so, I still had to use my hands to help feed them through the sewing machine. (You can see that my first attempt did bunch up a little bit as I got the feel for how much help was needed).

Now to make the windowed panel for the toy bag.

First, I sewed the two side panels onto the plastic window.

Next, I added the top and bottom panels to complete the front of the bag.

Then to help finish off the look of the 'window', and help to further secure the plastic into the bag, I did one finishing seam all the around the window. This will also hold down the seams that we sewed in the first two steps so they don’t show through the window.

Next, sew your two panels together on three sides to get a simple bag.

Now for the opening at the top of the bag. Since part of my goal with this project is to keep small toys away from our little one, I wasn't comfortable using a standard draw string closure. I just know that string would get pulled out by my oldest and we'd be back to dress up doll parts all over the floor. So, I decided to make a tight stretchy closure with a fully encased piece of elastic. My oldest can stretch it open to get out the dress up dolls, but it's almost fully closed the rest of the time.

To make an enclosed elastic top you need to fold down the top of the bag one inch and sew most of the way around. Leave a small opening so you can feed your elastic through.

Next, feed the elastic all the way around the bag.

(Tip: I always use a paper clip or safety pin like this to feed any elastic or cording through a narrow casing. Such a life saver!)

Find the right tightness for your bag and tie off the elastic into a complete circle.

Tuck in the elastic and sew the remaining part of the seam closed.

Turn the bag right side out and stuff with toys! That’s all there is to it! In less than an hour you can have a fun toy storage bag with a see through window!

You just have to find the time!

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Comments

2 comments

Categories

DIY, Gift, Kids, organize, sewing

Author

Kathryn

DIY Home Decor Organizer & Quick Reference

Although it's not a tutorial, this post is something I'm very excited to share! As we have just moved into a new house and are finally homeowners again (Yea!), I have become overwhelmed with the home decor side of home ownership. I have so many ideas and so much I want to do, but very little time and money to do it with. I also have been out of the home decor world for so long while we were renters that I never know where to go to get what I want and where I might stumble upon something perfect for one of the many "work in progress" rooms in my house.

Enter the DIY Home Decor Organizer & Quick Reference!

I needed a place to keep track of all my paint colors and fabrics that was light weight and easy to carry so I could have it with my all the time. I found that I would remember to bring the paint chips/fabric samples when I took a trip to Home Depot or Garden Ridge, because the odds of finding a potential treasure for the house was high. But I also found that I sometimes didn't have them with me when I was running other errands and had to either guess if something was the right color, or just leave it behind and hope to remember the color chips next time.

So I did some dollar bin digging at Target and bought one of those thin plastic picture albums for $1 to hold all my home decor sample and chips. It's the perfect solution! I am still working on the right order, but basically each room that is not completed (a.k.a. every room in my house!) has a few sleeves in the organizer that I stash all the paint chips, fabric samples, measurements, etc. that go in that space. So easy! So perfect!

I also plan to make a 'measurements' cheat sheet for all the rooms that will help me keep track of the dimensions for all the walls, windows, doors, etc.

And since this is a photo album I plan on taking pictures of what gets added/made for each room as it's completed to add to the organizer.

I have also found that it helps to have paint chips in the organizer for things other than the wall paint. For example, I have some in my master bedroom section to match the color of my duvet, and others in the dining room section that match the color of the rug. This protects me from any color variations that will come from my lack luster photography skills as I take pictures of those items.

I still have some rooms to add to the DIY Home Decor Organizer & Quick Reference, but it's serving it's purpose now and will be something I keep with me for years as this house grows with us!

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