3 Tiered serving tray

I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest, and had to make one of my own. I loooooove Pinterest! I've probably pinned more than I can ever make in my life, but there's so much inspiration. You can see my pins or follow me here: I love pinning. Just be warned, it's very addicting! :) Happy pinning!

Anyway, I found some dishes at a thrift store that matched, got a couple of glass candlesticks at Goodwill, and got out my Gorilla Glue. I've made a few of these now, but for this one, I glued the candlesticks upside down to have a little more space on the plate. My cat broke the first one I made when she jumped on top of my kitchen cabinets, and she chipped our countertop! Dumb cat. Here's a good tutorial on making these though.

Tooth fairy pillow

I made this pillow for my nephew. He's kind of in a cowboy stage, so I used a bandana, some old jeans, and a few fabric scraps. The striped piece is a little pocket, and I hand stitched the tooth on with felt. It was pretty easy, and I like how it turned out! :)

WFMW: Growth chart

Last week I posted the birthday banner I made for my daughter's birthday party. This is the growth chart I made for her as a gift. I finally got a little picture hanging thingy to nail to the back and hung it a few weeks ago. Her birthday was in July. I know, I'm so behind. I had a piece of wood from another project, and had a piece leftover that was just the right size. I just had to get a piece for the white frame. I had my hubby cut it to size for me. I painted it pink with regular craft paint. The painter's tape I had was wider than I wanted my stripes to be, so I used masking tape. I used the same color pink, and added some white to it. I used a regular felt tip pen for the lines and numbers. Maybe not the best way to do that, but I knew there was no way I'd be able to paint numbers and lines. Right now she comes to the very bottom of the chart at 31 inches.

It works for us! :) You can read more tips at We Are That Family.

Homemade dish detergent

For the last few weeks, I've been using my homemade dish washing soap. I was using Electrosol gel pacs for a while, but I had a bunch of gunk in my dishwasher, and I was having to scrub the dishwasher about once a week. So I started making my own. I really like it, and it's cheap and easy. It's only 2 ingredients: 1 part Borax, 1 part baking soda Borax and Arm & Hammer sometimes have coupons on their website you can use for this. I'm not sure about how much to use. I've been filling both sides of the detergent trap. I've tried using a little less, and I always seem to have food left on some things. Most things I've read say you can use a small amount. Just play with it, and see what works for you. You can also use vinegar as a rinse agent.

I put mine in an old wooden box to stay on the kitchen counter. I got this box for about a dollar at an antique place near our house. There's a sweet old man there who loves to talk and sell stuff for cheap!

I printed this vintage Borax label on cardstock and tied it to the handle of my box.

WFMW: Birthday banner

For my daughter's birthday a couple of months ago, I had to come up with my own decorations with supplies I already had. I used scrapbook papers and other supplies to make the birthday banner. I used a template from this site to make my banner pieces. I used one of my old scrapbook letter templates to make letters. And then I stapled the pennants to a pink ribbon, which came from a baby gift bow I had saved.Total out of pocket expense: $0.00!

My sister just got a Cricut, so next year I will probably borrow it instead of cutting my letters! :)

 

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips go here.

Dying with coffee and tea

I love dying things with coffee and tea. It instantly makes things look older. It's so easy to do and costs so little! I've dyed curtains, doilies, burlap, ribbon, muslin, and probably a lot more stuff. I really like how these curtains turned out. I bought this valence at a yard sale for .10 cents. Ten cents! They were a little too white looking for me, so I dyed them with coffee.

Here's one of my doilies. I love doilies. I have some that are very old and were made by my great grandmother. I don't dye those. The ones on my couch and chair were given to us as a wedding gift by a sweet lady.

I like the look of coffee better. It's a little darker. We don't even drink coffee, but sometimes I can find a good deal on the single packets of coffee that work well for this. Natural fabrics work better with dying. Man-made fabrics do not do well. I usually wet the item first in water, then submerge it in the coffee or tea. Wet fabric absorbs better than dry. I use a fork or tongs to turn it in the pot, to make sure the color is even. When you have the look you want, ring it out and let it dry. The color will fade a couple of shades as it dries. And it will also fade as it gets washed. I read here that you can set the dye by adding vinegar to the solution. I haven't tried that before, but let me know if you have.

That's my tip, and it works for me! You can read more tips at We Are That Family.

Yard Sales 9-10-2010

My sister and I had a good day Friday hunting for yard sales. There were not as many as we would have liked, but we did pretty well. I got some older serving utensils and a bunch of vintage linens (dish towels, table runner, cloth napkins) for .25 cents - .50 cents. One of those was a twin flat sheet I think will work well for curtains in our guest room. The vintage things were my favorite find of the day, but I also got a picture frame to repaint, a wire basket, beads for the little girl to play with, a couple of books, a metal bread tray, and a Strawberry Shortcake game. My sister didn't find much until we passed a place with a bunch of kids' clothes for .25 cents each, even blue jeans! We had to turn around to get back to that one, but it was worth the stop.

Evernote

I use Evernote all the time. It's used to collect and save notes, lists, information, pictures, etc. I use it to make my Christmas list, type up scrapbook journaling, record stuff Rebecca is doing, and make lists lists and more lists. I've created my own categories, added tags, and dates. It's fun, it's organized, I love it! 

I did recently notice the option to insert check boxes. While trying to do that, somehow I accidentaly deleted a huge list I'd been working on! Oops! I didn't save it, but I still lost it somehow. So be careful! 

That's my little tip for the day. :)