Gnat Trap

Hello All!

Several friends and family members have been wondering when I would be updating my blog again since my last post was 6 months ago! These last 6 months have been busy ones. My husband and I spent the spring house-hunting. We searched high and low for an old home in need of love and TLC. After months of searching, we found a cute little fixer-upper built in 1927 with good bones, but in desperate need of a face-lift.

A lot of my upcoming posts will revolve around the adventures of home-owning and renovating, so be ready!

But to start off my new string of posts, I am going to share this nifty little contraption my co-worker found on pinterest to rid our office of pesky gnats!

Our office has been plagued by gnats for the past two weeks, so my co-worker decided to take matters into her own hands and found a way for us to catch the gnats.

You'll need the following ingredients:

Apple Cider Vinegar
A Banana
A Mason Jar
A Piece of Paper
Tape

First, pour the apple cider vinegar into the jar. You'll want it to be about an inch deep.

Then, cut a slice of banana and drop it into the vinegar.

Next, roll and tape your piece of paper into a cone-shape. Make sure you leave a small hole in the bottom of the cone for the gnats to fly through.

Place the cone inside the jar with the bottom of the cone about a centimeter away from the vinegar. Tape the cone in place. We used clear packing tape. It works great, but make sure you wrap the jar and the cone well so that none of the gnats can escape through gaps.

Now you have a nifty gnat trap that really works! The gnats smell the vinegar and banana, fly down into the jar to eat and can't find their way back up the cone!

Us: 1, Gnats: 0

Happy Crafting!

Blue Distressed Mirror

I love this Goodwill find. It was a $5 mirror that I distressed using Acrylic paint from Joann's and a sponge brush. The mirror was already painted dark blue when I bought it, so I lightly painted one coat of a cute pale-aqua color with the sponge brush over the dark blue. As you can see, the dark blue shows underneath the lighter paint to give the mirror a distressed look.

Happy crafting!

Decorative Keys

I found these tile keys at Goodwill for $3 each. I hated the color, but loved the artistry and carving. So once again, a simple coat of paint turns something ordinary into something extraordinary.

I had a little bit of black spray paint left over from a previous project and decided to put it to good use. I layed the keys put on newspaper and went to town.

Simple, yet stunning. Happy crafting!

Photo Wall Collage

While my husband and I were dating, he took me to England and Ireland to meet his family and friends. It was such an amazing trip. We stayed in England for 3 weeks and 1 week in Ireland.

I took so many pictures I have no idea how I could ever get them all into an album, so my Husband and I decided to choose a few choice pictures and hang them on our office wall.

We chose black wooden $1 matted frames from the Dollar Tree and ripped out the perky pictures of flowers on the inside.

In order to make the picture fit the frame, I measured the matte. This matte had a 5.5" x 5.5" inch opening, so I cropped and resized my photos using Microsoft Word to fit the frames. I printed the photos on standard photo paper, cut them out and placed them within the frames using tape.

The total cost of this project was $16. $8 for 8 frames and $8 for the photo paper. However, most people have photo paper lying around their house (I had used all of mine), so this could be as low as an $8 project.

I love this wall statement because not only is it beautiful, but it has a special meaning behind it because these were pictures we took ourselves.

Happy crafting!

Slouchy Tee

I love a good, comfortable tee and this slouchy tee is only $4.80 at Forever 21. It's comfy, cheap and comes in multiple colors.

Happy shopping!

Union Jack Heart Necklace

I love this cute little necklace I found at Forever 21 for only $2.50. My husband is from England, so I thought it was pretty cute that I could wear his British heart close to my American one.

Happy shopping!

Over-the-Window Bookshelf

For those of you like me who live in a small house, space is a precious commodity. That's why it's important for me to utilize the space I have.

My husband and I have two huge windows in our office that take up an entire wall. So, we got creative and decided if we couldn't place a bookshelf against that wall because of the odd windows, we could use the space above them.

The first step was to measure the length of the windows. Ours were about 10 feet across. We added 2 inches to the length, one for each side of the board for the space to place the brackets.

We used a pine board measuring 10 inches wide by 12 feet long and trimmed the excess.

After we trimmed the board, we stained it to match our window trim. We used Minwax Polyshades stain in Walnut with a gloss finish.

After letting the stain dry overnight, we attached the board to the two outer brackets.

We also installed a small inner bracket for extra support.

And voila! You have an easy, space saving bookshelf to display all your literary treasures.

Happy crafting!

Red Goodwill Chair

There is nothing I like more than finding a good bargain. At least once every other week I will use my lunch break to go, as I call it, "goodwilling".

My husband and I were looking for a chair for our bedroom and I found this little baby for $3.

I immediately saw the potential in this chair fell in love.

I decided to paint it red to bring a little color into our bedroom.

I chose to use Krylon's Dual Paint and Primer in "Banner Red" for this project. I used the high gloss formula.

WARNING: Wear gloves while spray painting unless you want to spent half-an-hour removing red paint from your index finger.

I sanded down the chair in a few places to give it a "worn" look and set it outside on trash bags.

The rest of the project is pretty self explanatory. It took me 3 cans of paint and a lot of time, but I love the final results.

Happy crafting!

Circle Scarf

My cousin Zoe insisted that I make her Christmas present. She didn't want anything store-bought, she wanted an original gift.

So, I decided to make her a circle scarf with fabric depicting her favorite bird: cardinals. I free-handed the scarf by making my own pattern, but here's a circle scarf tutorial from burdastyle.com that teaches you how to create a similar type of scarf.

Happy crafting!

Painted Wooden Snowflakes

Hello everyone! I am so excited to launch my new blog so close to Christmas!

Here is my latest creative endeavor: painted wooden snowflakes!

I wanted to bring some color into my kitchen for the holidays, so I spiced up my white cabinets with red wooden snowflakes.

My inspiration for this decor came to me while standing in the check-out line at JoAnn's. These cute wooden snowflakes were only $1 apiece and just beckoned for me to buy them.

After I chose 5 snowflakes, I ran to the back of the store and picked out a paint color. I chose Americana's acrylic paint in "Santa Red". Very fitting, huh? This is a very simple craft. It took me about 15 minutes to paint all 5 snowflakes and an additional 15 minutes for the paint to dry. After they were dry, I stuck them to my cabinets using Command removable adhesive strips.

Happy crafting!