Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

DIY Tufted Fabric Headboard: the Do's and Don'ts

In the process of making our master bedroom a real retreat, we decided we wanted a headboard. We looked for options to buy, but we had already spent a fair share in the bedroom and we wanted to be able to DIY one since it would be much more affordable then buying one.

Don't make these mistakes while creating your fabric headboard. Even includes printable instructions so you don't have to keep the post up.

There are TONS of tutorials out there for making a DIY Fabric Headboard, this is not one of them. I am going to walk you through some of the dos and don'ts for creating your own headboard. Since none of the tutorials seemed to run into any problems that we did, I wanted to share our experience and what we did to solve the problems we encountered. So learn from my mistakes and keep this handy when you decide to do your own.

DIY Foaming Dish Soap Dispenser

I am sharing with you another brilliant idea from my husband. {Really glad I married an engineer} He brought you the "clean getaway" for your leftovers, now he is bringing you the foaming dish soap dispenser.

I love Bath & Body Works foaming hand soap, especially lemon, in the kitchen. One day, my husband just filled an empty one up with dish soap and loved it! It is super easy, so I am sharing it with you today.

Take your empty foaming hand soap container {you really can use any foaming hand soap container, they all have the same way to make it foam} and peel off the cover. I soaked mine in warm water for about 15 minutes and peeled the label away in the water. Peeling it away in the water really helps to eliminate the need for goo gone since the gummy backside comes off with the label. {This is not a necessary step, but I don't want guests to misuse it as hand soap, plus I will add a label to make it pretty :) }

DIY Foaming Dish Soap Dispenser using Bath & Body Works Hand Soap Pump

After the label is peeled away, I filled my soap up to the first "B" on the bottle. I used Mrs. Jones Soapbox's Soapy.

DIY Foaming Dish Soap Dispenser using Mrs. Jones Soapbox Soapy. Fill to the B

After you add your soap, slowly add warm water until the bottle curves. You need to leave room for the foaming mechanism. If you don't, it will just overflow.

One day I will add a label to it, but today was not that day.

Now your sponge is all ready to be soaped up! This may just make cleaning dishes easier....maybe.

Mini Ornament Garland

Just stopping in to let you know I am guest posting today at Confessions of the Perfect Mom. Go over and check out my super simple, super affordable mini-ornament garland!

Hope you are having a great Thursday!

How to Plan your Year of Dates Present

This year, my husband asked me to gift him A Year of Dates again. If you missed last year's present, read it here.

I am sharing with you how I am planning my gift to him this year. I obviously cannot share specifics since he does read my blog. I will be posting throughout the next year about what dates we are doing so you can use them for your gift next year!

Planning a Year of Dates - how to including printables | Managing a Home

*some links used are affiliate links*

Matching Months to Dates

Pretty obvious, but it is harder than you think! I used my Date Ideas Board on Pinterest to provide some inspiration.

I have a handy, dandy printable that I used to help me plan. It has a column for the month, the date that I chose {use pencil - lots of erasing and moving around}, as well as cost for the entire date and what I am willing to contribute. I am always sure to include a BIG date in there. Big date = most expensive. I always pay the full amount for that one, because some months, I opted to not pay for the entire date and that month we just budgeted in some of the money needed. For the rest of the dates, I mixed in some cheap and free dates as well.

I also have added columns so that you can note what gift item you will include {gift card, voucher, cash, etc} and a column to help you remember if it is completed or not.

Printable Planning Page for Year of Dates Present | Managing a Home

Click here to download planning page

I am cheating a little this year and reusing one that was extremely popular and re-gifting dates we didn't get to do, so I feel confident I can share them with you.

Spa Date - I opened up the Schramm Spa for one night only. I gave him a choice of 6 options, he got to choose 2. {can't have it all} I found recipes online for facials, foot scrubs, bath salts, massage oil and a lavender face mask. When he made his choice about what we would like and made his 'appointment', I gathered my materials and made what I needed to make. I was rather inexpensive because it is done at home and all of my treatments were made at home as well. This was by far his favorite date.

Hiking Bushkill Falls - we didn't get to do this date because of the timing. The height of the season this year fell later and it just didn't land on a weekend we could get up there. Going for a walk or hike is a perfect date. You get exercise, beautiful views and best part for us is we could take our baby girl along. You can find hiking trails near you and pack a picnic to take along.

Drive-in Movie - We still have a couple if drive in movie theaters near us. It seems like such a great experience. You can see if there is one near you. If not, many movie theaters are starting to convert to full service theaters. This would be a great "dinner & a movie" all at once.

For ideas, you can follow my Date Ideas Board on Pinterest, check out Groupon or Living Social {just be aware of the expiration dates} and be sure to think about some things you did when you first started dating and throw those in there too. These traditional things took up most of my dates for our first year.

Writing out your dates or Printing them out

I have to admit, this was my most difficult task. I wanted to say something meaningful but everything came out not-so-cute quirky or it didn't make sense. Since I hand-wrote each month's date so I went through a lot of paper. Surprisingly, this is the one thing I got the most comments on from my last post - how handwriting the notes really adds something special to the gift. I have always believed in handwriting notes when it is especially sentimental or meaningful.

This year I started to type out each date idea. This way I can have my wording available and then hand write on the pages I chose to use.

Some tips to help you:

Title page: Explain why you are gifting this to him. In our case, my husband's love language is time spent together so this is my expression of love. Here is a glimpse of last year's.

How to assemble a Year of Dates Present. Introduction letter | Managing a Home

Month descriptions: Give brief instructions on how it is to work. This is also where you can make it sweet or add any cryptic messages you may want to add {wink,wink}.

How to plan a Year of Dates. Monthly letter example | Managing a Home

Assembling it all together

Use any envelope you would like. I used these larger ones because I had some gifts that wouldn't fit in a small envelope. This year, I may use the small envelope - haven't decided.

How to plan a Year of Dates. Monthly envelope example. | Managing a Home

Here are the labels that I used for the large envelopes. I have included ones for smaller envelopes. Print, cut and paste onto the envelope.

How to Plan a Year of Dates. Labels for envelopes for the gift | Managing a Home

Click to download the large labels or small labels

Put in a box and you are ready! Happy Holidays!

I also have created a Year of Dates for Kids!

Plan a year of dates for your kids. Free printables. Makes a great Christmas Present

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DIY Mobile for Baby's Nursery

We were one of those odd couples that didn't want to know the gender of our baby. We thought that this was one of life's true surprises and we wanted to be surprised.We didn't do a gender reveal, we didn't even accidentally find out what we were having. {I only found out when my doctor accidentally told me at my 37 week appointment. Then he tried to cover it up. I didn't tell my husband.}

When our daughter was born, I decided I didn't want the gender neutral nursery that I had originally designed. She is a girl! I wanted to make it a "girly" space. We had moved her into her crib at 3 months old. Yes - I cried for a couple nights that she was in the very.next.room and not next to me. Anyway...we were looking around her nursery and found that it was not very colorful, not very appealing. We wanted to give her something fun and colorful to look at while she was laying in her crib. So I started scouring Pinterest and Etsy and find a mobile that I loved. I did! But I did not love the price tag. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Here is the inspiration piece:

via

My husband loved the look of this too, but wanted it to be more colorful and fuller. I agreed. So out to the store I went to buy colored paper, some embroidery hoops and yarn.

My Vision: This mobile with many more colors {randomly placed on purpose} and add 2 more layers to go inside of the mobile to make it fuller and longer.

Now I was to get to work.

I gathered the materials I would need first:

colored paper
2 inch circle punch
a sewing pin
fishing line
embroidery hoops
clear tape

I started by punching 2 inch circles with my punch. It was easier to fold the ends of the paper in toward the center so I got 2 circles with every punch. I started with these colors.

I took each one and poked a small hole with a sewing pin. {If you look closely, you can see I did that in the circles above.} I did not poke the hole directly in the center, I wanted some of them to look off-balance to help with the overall look of the mobile.

Then I cut each fishing line about 24". I strung each circle onto the fishing line. I tied a knot that the bottom and put the circle on, tied another knot a bit farther up, then dropped another circle. I did go in some sort of pattern, note above the randomly on purpose. I made sure that none of the lines had the same bottom or top color. I did this during nap time while watching TV. It became quite relaxing.

When I got a few strands I started to map out my plan to attach them to the embroidery hoops.

Colored circles on strands of fishing line

I placed 1 strand per inch on the embroidery hoop. The 12 inch hoop had 12 strands, the 8 inch hoop had 8 strands and the 4 inch hoop had 4 strands. I tied the fishing line around the inner hoop and then added a bit of clear tape to reinforce it. When all strands were tied on and I was happy with it, I tied

4 - 12" strands of fishing line to the inner hoop{this will be used to hang it up}. Again, reinforcing them with tape. Then, I put the outer layer of the hoop on and tightened as much as I could. I did this for all 3 hoops.

After all of the hoops were stranded, I got the last materials I would need.

yarn
hot glue gun

I started by layering my hoops. I had some holes, which I fully intended on filling. I used my doorway and taped the first 12" hoop up so it was as straight as I could get it. Then I held up the 8" hoop inside and moved it so I could see each strand of circles on the 8" hoop in between the strands on the 12" hoop. Then I tied the 8" hoop in place with the 4 - 12" strands of fishing line to the inner hoop. I did the same thing with the 4" hoop.

I then used my hot glue gun to wrap the grey yarn around the top. I put a dab of glue on one side of the hoop closure {where you tightened it} and secured the yarn. Then I started wrapping. I wrapped all the way to the other side, being sure to wrap my fishing line in there {it helped with reinforcing it even more than with just tape}. I added another dab of hot glue and secured the other end. I did this for all of the hoops.

Then, we hung it in her room. You could easily use a 3M Command Hook to hang this, but my husband wanted to make sure it didn't fall on her {the mobile is not heavy}. We had this hook laying around so he secured it to the ceiling. {You will also see that I decided to use yarn to attach it to the ceiling. That was a last minute decision :) You could definitely use the fishing line.}

Just for fun...a view from where Seraphina views it.

Full disclosure: I made this when Seraphina was about 3 months old {March}. I didn't have a blog at the time but I am excited to share this with you now :)

This is one of the first things she has to say "hello" to when she gets up in the morning or from naps. She is always trying to reach for it and loves to push it to make it move.

Did you make a mobile for your baby? If not, what did you DIY for your baby?