Candy corn crafting

Hey everybody! Sorry for the late post today – it’s fall break for my kiddo and we slept in. It was glorious. Expect more of the same tomorrow.

So the other day I came up with a cute fall/Halloween craft and of course when I searched it realized I was like the eleventy billionth person to think of it, but I forged on. So this is not a new idea (are there new ideas anymore?) but I think it’s pretty darn cute.

I started out by grabbing a scrap piece of fabric, which is actually an IKEA curtain from a project gone wrong. So I use it for random stuff now and this is one of the random projects:

I did iron it first but you can’t tell. Score one for me.

I searched online for bunting or pennant template and this awesome one came up from Sweetly Scrapped Art:

Most I found were a triangle shape – I wanted one like this with the area at the top you fold over. If it was a plain triangle shape you’d be doing some trimming after folding the top over your string. Make sense?

So I traced it on my fabric, trying to get as many out if it as I could:

I didn’t even end up using half the fabric, score! More scraps for later!

So all along I planning on just doing straight lines with painters tape, but then I remembered I had the Frogtape shape tape (say that three times fast):

Did you say it three times? I did. Can’t do it.

Anyway, I’ve been dying to try the scallop design so I thought this would be a great way to use it.

I didn’t cut out the shapes just yet – I just laid the tape down over one line of them:

I thought this would save me some time, but I had to end up doing the same for the other direction so cut them out or don’t – it didn’t make much of a difference. One nice thing about leaving them and painting (without cutting out first) is that the line was similar across each “corn” – the orange, yellow and white were the same sizes.

And obviously…I used orange, yellow and white:

The paint was the only cost in the project for me – so about $4?

I keep plastic bowls in the craft table for paint but ran out, so I improvised with the Frogtape lid:

 

Yeah, it worked perfectly. ;)

So I don’t have pics of the process because a.) I only have two hands and it was hard to take a pic and b.) because it was dark and the photos would have sucked butt. But you get the idea. I taped off the orange section first, let the paint dry (I used a hair dryer to speed it up), then taped off the yellow and white and did those.

I used the end of a foam roller to “pounce” the paint onto the fabric. (I rinsed it between colors.) This way it doesn’t go under the tape. I was pretty impressed that I didn’t get any bleeding, even on fabric.

When they were dry I used my craft glue to glue the top part of the pennants over onto some twine:

And I gotta say, I think it turned out pretty darn cute!:

The orange paint wasn’t super opaque – I could have done a few more coats but didn’t want this project to take forever. So that color isn’t very consistent throughout but when I was done I quite liked the look. The yellow and white covered much better.

Originally I planned to do this project on a paper like poster board, but I was afraid the paint would make it wrinkle. The fabric is nice and stiff once the paint dries so it worked great!

I think it is a super cute addition to the fall(ish) mantel:

I want to leave them up past Halloween they’re so cute. Candy corns are fall too, not just Halloween right? Whatever, I’m leaving them. I’ve been horrible about getting the Halloween stuff out this year! The outside of the house has been decked out for a week or so, but I haven’t wanted to bring in all the Halloween stuff just yet. This weekend we’ll take care of that.

You can see my other candy corn projects from a couple years back here:

That wreath has survived two years, can you believe it??

Do you love candy corns? I don’t like to eat them but I love to decorate with them! Makes perfect sense.

Home tours part 1

Hey hey! I’m back today with a couple fun house tours for you – one of my very favorite things to do is walk through model homes. I even have my boy hooked on it. We’ll be driving through a random neighborhood and he’ll ask if we can “walk through the houses.” Yes, I am raising him right.

The Indianapolis area used to have a Home-a-Rama tour every year that my friend and I would attend, but for the past few years I haven’t heard of anything. It was a major bummer. Maybe they had been happening and we just didn’t hear, but I even searched online a couple years back and couldn’t find any shows.

So I was thrilled when I picked up our local magazine last week and saw there was a new one going on. I thought I’d share some of the houses with you! There were four but I took a ton of pics, so I think I’ll break this up into two posts.

Thing is, the old home tours (years ago) were extremely elaborate. I’m talking huge, gorgeous, over-the-top homes. Man I wish I still had pictures of some of those. I could tell this year that things are just changing – these homes were still big square-footage wise, much bigger than our house, but the floor plans didn’t make them feel huge. And the decor was beautiful and well done but just wasn’t as elaborate as the old shows.

The first home was an all brick exterior in what they called an Italian Renaissance style:

It felt very imposing to me – not my favorite. The brickwork was beautiful though.

I tried to cut down on the pics so bear with me here. I loved the bright kitchen with the dark gray kitchen island:

This look is one I’ve probably pinned a hundred times. :) I adore it but would need to add more color in my own house.

I find the layout is generally the same in a lot of these homes – but the difference in houses in this price bracket is in the details. The doors are heavy solid wood, the cabinets are soft close. The hardware is heavy and HUGE:

Check it out – those handles are massive!

I loved the brick flooring look in the mud room and the wood tile in the basement:

That brick look is actually a tumbled stone, not brick. So it was smooth to the touch – easy to clean! I really loved it! It brought a lot of character to the space. That wood tile in the basement is definitely cool – but also a little too cool for me. Literally. ;) I love the warmth of wood (on my feet).

Usually the basements on these tours are spectacular, and these were still fun but not crazy decked out like years back.

I LOVED the brick walls with the holes for the wine in this basement:

How cool is that? Not sure that could be DIY’d but I dug it. I liked the black cabinet and gray subway tile combo too.

I thought this multi-purpose room with the chalkboard wall was cute:

I loved the bright colored poufs with the black wall.

I noticed that all of the master bedrooms were surprisingly small. Seems to the trend too:

I do think some of the masters in new construction over the past ten years or so are ridiculously big, but these felt a little cramped to me, even with just a few pieces of furniture.

I loved the big shower in this house:

Loved the tub too, but the placement was odd to me. It was just kind of out in the middle of the room. Very exposed. ;)

The second house had a much more traditional look:

And yet the inside was more contemporary – I expected it to have a warmer feel:

I did love this nook in the kitchen – they had it built out as a homework/crafting station:

I thought this clipboard idea was adorable!:

Just secure them to the wall and you can easily clip new stuff to each board.

This idea was pretty darn cute too:

Your very own pumpkin patch! ;)

I loved the black cabinets in the kitchen – they added to the contemporary feel:

The kitchen table and chairs and stools were all dark too, so it did get a little heavy in there. But the multiple huge windows made up for that. ;)

The family room area was done in gray and orange:

The rug was super cool, loved it.

I thought this art in the basement was such a fun idea!: 

It looks like Instagram art, right? They used graphics but I thought this would be SO cool with Instagram pics. Each square was a little piece of wood that was velcroed on, so you could change them out. You could do this with wood and photos printed on paper then mod podge them on.

Now I’m trying to think of where I could do this. :)

One of the rooms upstairs had a super cool bunk wall built in:

The Bub LOVED this room. There were little cubbies complete with outlets in each bunk. Although there would need to be a bar up there on that top bunk to help me sleep at night. (These ceilings were high!!) I keep debating bunk beds for my son’s room – I think they’d give him so much more space but they freak me out a little. :)

The master bathroom had a REALLY cool tile used as an accent:

It was like a bubble tile – the circles were raised and we couldn’t stop touching it. SO much fun.

This bathroom also had a little something else I loved – a little coffee/kitchenette station: 

Certainly makes me wish we liked/drank coffee. Would a hot chocolate station be over the top? Maybe.

Well there’s the first two! I’ll share the last two soon. (The very last house was my favorite!) I think the show is still going next weekend if you’d like to attend. I didn’t even scratch the surface with these pics of course – there’s SO much more to see.

Which one was your favorite? Anything you loved? I think that kitchen in the first house is my favorite room so far. :)

House one was built by Brookshire Homes, decorated by Luxe Home Interiors.
House two was built by DB Klain Contruction, decorated by Savvy Decor.

How my house lost weight

Hello there! How was your weekend? Ours was great – how about those Colts?! There’s a lot of folks in Indiana dragging today, we had to stay up and watch a the whole thing. What a great game!

Anyway, I didn’t get any DIY done this weekend because I had one. sole. focus…get the rest of the house DECRAPIFIED.

By the way, I can’t take credit for that term. A very lovely reader used it years ago and I was instantly hooked on it. I asked her if I could use it cause it was so awesome. And I do. It’s a good word.

I’ve mentioned once or 75 times that I’ve been working on cleaning out the house for the past few months. I didn’t realize how long it’s been till I looked back at some posts. It’s been a LONG time.

I don’t mind the process but doing as intensely as I did got to be a little much at times. I would stall out for a week or two and then go back to it. And I was easily sidetracked and would have to finish up DIY projects as I went along.

I got ‘er done. A lot.

I think the biggest difference is in the kitchen. The drawers open easily (nothing “sticking” as I open or close them):

A functioning drawer is highly underrated. I like not fighting with my drawers. :)

I showed you how I cleared out the utensils and organized them here:

And the clean and organized pantry last week:

I use a lot of dressers around the house, including this one in our foyer. The handle on that top drawer (my tool drawer) has broken twice because it was so heavy. Now it’s decluttered and light as a feather:

As light as tools can get anyway.

And no, I don’t organize every bit of stuff in the drawers – when there’s less in there I can see to find what I need easily so I don’t think it’s needed.

There are even a few completely, gloriously empty drawers in the house!:

The other room that I’ve noticed a HUGE difference in is our mud room – the floors and shelf were covered with, well…CRAP.

Even the utility closet was a mess – now we just open the door and select the cleaning tool of our choice:

I had been hoarding floor cleaning stuff. It was a bit ridiculous. I need one broom and a couple floor cleaning jobbies – not 12.

While I was at it I gave the whole a room a nice coat of clean white paint:

I’m SO glad to be done with the yellow in there and I’m still in love with the white!

The bathroom linen closets were purged and organized as well:

Complete with LABELS on the bins so they stay that way!

While I was at it in the downstairs powder room I added some fun to the laundry chute:

Want to smile when you open your closet? Add polka dots.

One of the rooms that lost the most weight was our guest room. The closet was a dumping ground for sure. I cleaned it out and used some scrap wood to make better use of all the space in there:

While I was at it I painted the room (it had been waiting years for its turn):

Still loving that light green color too!

I can’t even tell you how many trips to the recycling bins and Goodwill I made – I lost count. I actually have a load in the back of my SUV right now. I just had to get that last pile out of the house. :)

I do have a few more spots to tackle that I knew I’d have to wait on – the master closet is one. Lots of laundry happening this week and then we can really start going through all the clothes. That room just by itself will take at least a month. It’s bad. Very bad.

But the garage is up next on my list. I’m completely reorganizing and moving things around in there. My plan is to create a workshop where there wasn’t one so I’m super excited about that.

And finally…the BAG. While going through the house there were always little things that hung me up. You know, those little jobbies you are pretty sure you need but you can’t think of a good spot and wait, maybe you don’t need them but you need more time to decide?

Yeah. I put all of those in a bag:

Those annoying things trip me up suck out my decluttering mojo. So they must be bagged till I can deal with them. It helps. Cause I’m a bagger.

I already found the rug I’m planning to use as my inspiration in the mud room inside. I knew it was in the house but couldn’t find it anywhere. I wonder what other treasures are in there?? I’ll go through that today, take the final trip to Goodwill and I’m calling it done till next year!

Usually I tackle this earlier in the new year, but I started later this year. Oh who am I kidding – it went all year. But it is nice to hit the holidays with a house that weighs about 200 pounds less, figuratively and literally.

Ahhhhh…it is a GREAT feeling!! Virtual high five y’all!!

An organized pantry

Good Friday to ya! Whoo-te-hoo.

I’m back today with an update on a big redo I did a couple years back – the pantry. And I hope you still like me after you read cause I have a big revelation to make.

When I decluttered the kitchen a couple weeks back this space was on the list. I joked that it was scary but honestly…it wasn’t bad. That’s when I knew I had really, finally come up with a system for this space that works.

See, years ago this is what it looked like most of the time:

Actually, that wasn’t too bad. :)

Over the years I realized something BIG about myself that kind of changed my pantry-world. I always felt like we needed to have a TON of food, just in case. That just in case ranged from a natural disaster (which I do still think you should have a stash for) to financial insecurity to Armageddon. Take your pick.

I knew exactly why I did it too – it stemmed from my childhood. The desire to never have to worry about having food in the pantry ever again. So I hoarded food. And it was a bit ridiculous, as you can see. Ridiculous because: 1. three people can’t possibly eat that much 2. we eat out a lot 3. Armageddon is not coming. Probably. At least not in my lifetime. I hope. 

So early last year I completely made over this space (took out the wire shelves, painted, installed melamine shelves), took a hard look at how we eat and changed how I bought food. Now when I cook I either plan ahead and make sure to have what we need, or I go out that day and get what I’m missing. I don’t keep food in here that I might need for that one recipe that I make every six months. I just go buy it. Because I can make the time – again this is what works for me.

When I cleaned out the pantry this time I still felt like a horrible, no good person (because of the wasted food) – but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. Because we can see what we’re eating now:

Last time I wrote about our pantry many were like, no, seriously, where’s the food? There’s a good foot of space on each side that you can’t see straight on. I do still have SOME food.

Sooooo, here’s the thing. Don’t hate me. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to blog after confessing this. Last year I loved the whole idea of the plastic containers for things like crackers, baking supplies, etc. It was kind of the thing. I liked that I could see the food and I thought we’d eat it if we could see it. Something like that?

Anyway…the thing is…I don’t use them anymore. I KNOW. Will I be banished from blogland?

Over time I realized that we were wasting food when it was in clear containers. I would try to mark the expiration on the bottom but then when you’re almost out of, say, crackers, and you go to get more, what do you do? Dump the ones that are left but still good? Put the new ones on top and mix up expiration dates? Keep the new ones in the box until the old ones in the container were gone?

See. THESE are what you call first world problems.

I mean, it wasn’t all that dramatic, but you get what I’m laying down here. It just didn’t work. And I used quite a few of them for dry cereal but my boy doesn’t like cereal (I KNOW!) and I don’t eat it like I used to so we don’t really buy much anymore.

SO. I got rid of most of the containers (in here, I’m using most of them elsewhere). The flour and sugar and all is now out on the counters where I can easily access them (in these glass containers) and the rest (for the most part) stays in the boxes.

Did I just rock your world? I have BOXES. :)

I do still use a few plastic containers for a few baking things like candy chocolate, brown sugar and my beloved popcorn:

And you can barely see it here but I use them for pasta (because I use it a lot and it doesn’t go bad as fast):

I do still use baskets in the pantry – I find them helpful to corral the smaller items like packets and mixes and such:

Last year I was able to clear out so much that I had one free shelf. I love having some mixing and serving bowls in here – they’re easy to grab when I need them:

That’s the popcorn bowls up front. Where they belong.

So there you go. The cleaned out pantry – and there’s no horrible before photo because it actually stayed pretty darn cleaned out. It’s a MIRACLE. Because we have the glass door that’s a good thing:

      

For years I felt like the pantry was SO tiny and just not big enough for our needs, but now I think it’s just fine. Keep in mind it’s usually just three of us in this house though, so what works for us may not work for a larger family. But it does feel good to let go of that need to have it packed full of food constantly.

Do you use the plastic containers for your food? Love them or no? Any tricks for keeping your pantry organized?

To see more about the door that I used for the pantry go here.
To see how I made the windows private and make the inside glow at night, go here.

Have a LOVELY weekend! Anyone planning on cleaning out their pantry now? You’re welcome.