Jewelry Bottle Organizer

I've certainly pinned enough ideas like the one I'm about to show you. I needed to organize my massive amounts of jewelry (thanks, mom!) so this idea is for all those bracelets I have. I just took two wine bottles I had sitting around and piled on the bracelets around the neck. Really helps keep them from tangling up with each other.

Pallet Table and Book Storage

I needed somewhere to keep my books in my craft shed and needed extra table space. I had some smaller pallets my son collected for me outside of my shed, so I stacked them side by side and got this. You can see all my books stuck inside the open sides of the pallets and I now have extra space to sit things.

Rusted Nail Windchime

 When Life gives you a yard full of rusted nails..Make windchimes!
I took a metal clothes hanger and spiral it and tied on graduated sizes of rusted nails with nylon string. It's really hard to get a good picture of windchimes! I have two different views with not so great backgrounds.

New Direction

I am taking a new direction with this blog. It wasn't working for me and so I've decided to blog about what I hope to acquire one day, a homestead. Since we're renting we are limited to what we can do. There are still unlimited projects I can tackle. For my first venture, let's talk about home made clothes detergent. This is something I already do most of the time and while my idea may be a little different, there are as many ways to do this as there are people doing it.

My DH is a truck driver and often times ends up staying a night in a motel or eventually has to shower at a truck stop. So, while the original recipe calls for a specific kind of laundry soap, I grate up all the little tiny soaps that he brings home. Otherwise, these things end up taking over the bathroom cabinet.  I put the grated up soap in an old canning jar and sit it on my laundry room shelf. When washing clothes, I add about 1/4 cup of Borax, 1/4 cup of Washing soda and 1/4 cup of grated soap. Give or take, according to how dirty the clothes are.  And that's about it. And then I do what so many people around me think is so archaic....I hang my clothes on the line to dry!

Making Do

Well, we are stuck here for a little while, it seems. The universe doesn't seem to want us anywhere else right now.  So...I am making do with what I have.  Not your all white and pink with roses everywhere shabby chic look, I know.  White walls in this place would be a disaster.  Out here it is so dusty and dirty.  The roads are that white limerock and people drive fast out here and kick up tons of it, that means dusting just about every other day.I've gone over to the eclectic side.  Wish the walls weren't sooooo dark, but that paint was on clearance and that paint is what we got.  I do, however, plan to stencil or stamp a white design somewhere.  Don't necessarily plan on keeping those curtains, but the sun shines strong in those windows and there are no trees. See, the floors?  They are just plywood.  We are talking about just sanding them down and staining them.  The furniture needs slip covers also.  Anybody got any suggestions on making this place livable?  I really don't know what to do with it.

"Happenstance" Grows Better

What the birds drop from the birdseed grows better than  what was intentionally put in the grow.  This is the biggest and prettiest sunflower I've ever had.              

Rolled Denim Flower Frame and Some Stars

I was inspired by rolled denim flowers from discarded jeans to embellish this small frame that holds a black and white picture of my sister.  It kind of has a sculptural look.  All you do is cut strips of denim and roll them after spreading glue down the strip. Then, just glue them randomly to the frame.  I left the sides undone because you can't see them and the bottom, so it could still stand up.                                                  
                                                                                       
                                                                                       
                                                                                     
                                                                                           
                                                                                       
And here are some stars I made from thin cardboard.  I found a star shape online and scored it after cutting it out to make it kind of 3 dimensional. I spray painted it silver. The small one on the bottom had these little tear drop designs that I cut out. I glued a small piece of wire on the back to hang them up.  These are very simple to do, not requiring a lot of instruction.  Have a little fun with these and see what you can come up with.