Monogrammed (Thrift Store) Vases

 I originally posted this project back in December as part of my Thrifty Gifty series.  I'm reviving it today for the CSI Project.

For this one you will need vases or other glassware. Naturally, I got mine at the thrift store for about $1 each. You will also need Frosted Glass Spray; I used Rustoleum.

I used a craft knife to cut my letters out of contact paper.  It would be easier to use premade stickers, but I didn't have any at the time.

Cover any parts of the vase that you do not want frosted.  Spray lightly a few times, let it dry, and carefully peel off the stickers. Fabulousness!

Wanna see it again? Yes, I think you do.  For the vase with the H, I used the same method in negative (cut the letter out of the contact paper and then stick the sheet of paper to the vase and spray).

If you look closely, you can see that a little bit of the frost peeled up with the sticker on the bar of the A. Be really careful, and maybe even use your craft knife to slice along the edge of the sticker before you peel it up.

I think mine are a pretty good facsimile of these from Pottery Barn, except instead of $19-$44, I spent under $2 each.

The spray says you can handwash with liquid soap and water, but don’t use the dishwasher. The frost comes off with acetone, and I was able to scrape it with my fingernail so it’s definitely “for display only”. But it looks good!

IKEA, Here I Come!

I can't believe that the summer is half over for us!  It's going to really pick up speed from here on out, too, because our schedule is pretty full right up until school starts.

At the end of the month we will be taking our biennial vacation to Lake Michigan, with a stop-over in Chicago, and that means...IKEA!

For me, IKEA is as much a part of the vacation as the beach.  We usually spend anywhere from three to six hours there, and sometimes go more than once.  It's big, it's fun, it's cheap, and I love it!

I know that many of you live near IKEA and can go whenever you want.  I was thinking that I'd ask all of you about your favorite IKEA purchases, the little things that regulars know about and star-struck amateurs like me might pass by.  Then I decided that a linky party would be fun, so...

This Thursday I will host an IKEA party, for you to share your favorite IKEA purchases around your house, any tips you may have for newbies, the things that are always on your shopping list when you hit the store, or basically anything having to do with IKEA, whether you live near one or not.

I hope you will join me!

Rite of Passage

My baby recently celebrated her 8th birthday!  I'm not sure how time flies so quickly, but unfortunately it's beyond my control.

We decided to let her get her ears pierced for her birthday.  I was way more nervous about this than she was.  I was not keen on taking her to the mall and letting some 16 year old do it.  I got online to search for "best place to get ears pierced" and lots of people were recommending tattoo/piercing parlors because they are licensed, regulated, sterile and all that.

After  
1) strong objections from Pinkerbelle who did not want to go to a tattoo place (ask her again in another 8 years)
2) a "what's wrong with the mall?" from Craig, the health and safety expert, and  
3) emailing a tattooed friend of ours who said the place he goes is "no place for kids"
we went to Claire's.

Betsy, the assistant manager, appeared to be older than 16 (barely), and accustomed to nervous parents.  She walked me through the procedure and assured me that she wore gloves, sanitized the work area, and that the earrings are sealed in a package until they are fitted into the piercing apparatus and are never touched by human hands.

She was meticulous about getting the dots even.

I seem to remember when I got my ears pierced many, many years ago that the gun made a big ka-chunk-a! noise, but the kind they use now is virtually silent.

Pinkerbelle didn't even flinch; after a pause, she said "ouch" in a deadpan voice.

For the second ear, she had a curious (and slightly freaked out) audience in the mall.

P. was a trooper.  Apparently it was practically painless, and she's done a good job of cleaning her ears with the solution they gave her.  My baby isn't much of a baby anymore (sigh!).

But I told her no dangly earrings until she's a teenager.

How to Save on Tide Detergent

I wanted to post this Monday, but I've been having some computer problems around here...blah!  

I like to use Tide laundry detergent...not necessarily because I think it does a better job (quite frankly, I've never really noticed a huge difference between any of the main brands), but because I love the scent of the original powder.  Original scent liquid does not smell the same, and I don't care for all the other heavily scented varieties.

Until recently it was difficult to find the original powder around here...Walmart and Target didn't have it, and it cost too much at the grocery store.  Then I discovered that Walgreens regularly carries it.

But here's the best part:  once every 4-6 weeks, Walgreens has Tide (any scent) on sale for $5.99 for a 40 load box.  That's a pretty good price for any but the cheapest detergent.  The same size box at Walmart is $8. So whenever it's on sale at Wags I get 2 or 3 boxes and that carries me through to the next sale.

To further my savings, I've been getting the Tide boxes that indicate they have coupons on the inside; with the enclosed $1/off coupon I can get my next box for $4.99.  About once a month P&G has a coupon flier in the Sunday paper, which will sometimes have a Tide coupon as well.  There was one this week for $1 off. (My Walmart has recently started carrying the 120 load box of original scent for $18.50, so I'm still saving a little bit at Walgreens even if I don't have any coupons, and more if I do.)

This is a sale week at Walgreens, so go stock up if you're so inclined.  It's a little thing, but I thought it might help somebody. 

Cheap and Easy(Bake)

Did you have an Easy-Bake Oven when you were little?  I had this one:

I'm quite sure it must have come from a garage sale or something because a) I'm not that old (this appears to be the original 1963 version) and b) it would be extremely rare for me to have any kind of "in" toy otherwise (no Baby Alive or Rub a Dub Dolly for me).

Oh my goodness, I found the Rub a Dub Dolly commercial on YouTube!  Tugboat shower!



Anyway, back to the Easy-Bake...we got one for Pinkerbelle for Christmas a couple of years ago, and only then did I realize the ridiculous prices on the baking mixes (which is probably why I don't remember using my Easy-Bake Oven very often).

Not to be deterred, I got online and found instructions for using regular cake mix.  For one of the little round cake pans:
3 Tbsp cake mix, any flavor
1 Tbsp milk

1. Spray pan with baking spray
2. Combine cake mix and milk until smooth; pour into pan.
3. Bake in preheated Easy-Bake Oven for 15 minutes.

We've been using the same box of cake mix ever since we got the oven (I know, I know, but I do reseal the bag with a clip, and besides I figure it's so preserved it's like a Twinkie and never spoils).  I printed out those instructions and taped them to the box.

Now, whenever the stars align and Pinkerbelle's desire to use her oven coincides with my willingness to put up with a little mess, we have the mix ready to go in the pantry.

More On the Bedroom Redo

As I type, Craig is getting started on painting the bedroom walls.  I chose Behr Ultra Burnished Metal (UL260-17).

Can I tell you how much I love, love, love the new 8 oz sample cans?  It's more than enough to paint several large swatches on the wall, and at only $2.94, it's reasonable.  If I don't like the color I don't feel like I wasted too much money, like I used to buying a quart at about $10.

In fact, I would often skip the color-testing stage, and have occasionally been less than satisfied with the final room.  That totally would have happened this time, too, if I had just had Craig get a couple gallons of the color I originally thought I was going to go with.

These are the samples I painted on my wall.  I know that your monitor may not show the true color (I know mine doesn't), so we'll just use this for reference purposes.  These are all Behr Ultra:  from left to right they are Classic Silver, French Silver, and Burnished Metal.  From looking at the paint chips, I was pretty sure I wanted French Silver, which definitely had some blue in it. 

These are all in the gray family, but once on the wall, I could see that Classic Silver had too much green in it, and French Silver was darker than I wanted.  So I went with the Burnished Metal, as it went to the blue side like the FS, but was lighter.  (Am I the only one who can be swayed by the paint name? FWIW, Behr Ultra has good names.)

I found this duvet cover at Overstock.com.  It only came in twin, so I bought two and will have to work some magic with the sewing machine to make it fit.  Sears has the same design in a comforter set in all the sizes, but I have a down comforter I want to cover.

I think the leafy pattern is a fresh update on a floral, giving it a contemporary feel without the "hard edges" that modern can sometimes have.

It's coming along...some day soon I'll have a relaxing master retreat rather than the mess it is now.

Just Do It

It pains me to admit this, but I am not a naturally fun mom.  I thought I would be, I planned to be, but I guess my personality is just a little too uptight.  I totally love my kids, and it's not that I ignore them or anything, but I'm just not the mom that has activities planned all the time or anything like that.  And I'm okay with telling them to go watch TV if things are getting too loud.

Recently, my friend Amanda did a post called Eighty-Three Percent.  It was mainly about balancing blogging time and family time, and it's a really good post.  But what got me was the quote she used:

"The home is eighty-three percent of your child's world, and you have only one opportunity to make it of maximum benefit."

-Dr. Howard Hendricks

My kids are 12, 9, and 8.  As they get older, less and less of their world will be home.  That's how it should be, but I can't help but think of what opportunities I've already missed.  Even before Amanda's post, I had decided to try to "do" a little more this summer.  More for me may be less than for a lot of people, but comparison is the death of contentment.  

Part of the plan was a weekly trip to library (we usually go pretty frequently anyway, but more sporadically).  They are all signed up for the summer reading clubs and have been reading more because of it.  That's a good thing.  We will also take advantage of some of the summer activities the library puts on; this past Monday it was a movie and popcorn, which was great since it was 100*.

The other part of my plan was one out-of-the-ordinary fun activity a week.  A couple weeks ago, with all this in mind, I decided it would be fun to tie dye shirts with the kids.  I did some tie dying when I was a teenager, back in the 80s when movies about the Vietnam war were abundant and pseudo-hippiness was cool.  I don't recall it causing any panic attacks back then.

We picked out some colors, I had the shirts, and then they sat there.  It was too hot to do it outside, I was afraid of dye staining everything in the house, yada yada yada.

This morning I bit the bullet and we just did it.  And guess what?  It wasn't that big a deal.  Oh, I panicked a couple times with dye splashing or whatever, but it all turned out in the end.

A fun time was had by all.  And hopefully, that is what they will remember, more than that their mother almost had to take a Valium to get though it.