Spring Cleaning: My Bathroom

Seriously, its basically the middle of February already. I am already behind on so many things so I feel that, maybe, just maybe, if I organize all of my crap again room by room, drawer by drawer, I can catch up on a bunch of unfinished projects simultaneously. I started with my bathroom because its very small and manageable and there wasn't too much to be done. Mostly cleaning up hair. I shed like a small breed of dog. I sometimes contemplate shaving my head or going with dreadlocks so I can have a rest from sweeping and vacuuming. First, I snapped a few before shots. So you can see what a filthy animal I am…

(please forgive the lousy photos as I am still without a proper camera.)

as you can see, things are just meh. Rather sloppy too if you ask me but not that bad over all.

I sorted through all my extra products and organized my mini sizes for travel in this pink box

Then I went through all my hair goodies and paired that down a bit. 

I got this sick vintage 90's caboodle at Goodwill for one doll hair. I love it and it holds all my makeup that I don't use everyday.  

then I just put everything back a little neater and got a better basket for holding all the products. I don't like having them all over the counter and on display. That is not relaxing to me. 

I also went ahead and picked up a fresh shower curtain. I got this one with a pretty lime green leaf pattern at Target on sale for $7.00

Tidied up here, put away ugly product containers…

I straightened the shelves and again put away excess products. I hate unsightly packaging. I use jars to house my lady tools and such. I think its a much cleaner look with out losing any convenience or function. 

 Miss Poodle forever <3

It looks soooo much better just by doing that little bit. On top of all the organizing and tidying I also cleaned the tub/shower, wiped the counters, shelves, and mirror, scrubbed the toilet, wiped the baseboards, vacuumed, and mopped. I also wiped out the inside of the cabinets when I rearranged everything so the entire bathroom got a deep cleaning as well as a little spruce. It feels good to check the first room of the Spring Cleaning list. I think next I'm going to tackle my bedroom. Thanks for reading :)

Kirsten

DIY: Table Remix

Hello. I'm back. Quite a hiatus I know. As usual I will ignore it and just go about showing you a cool project :) So my auntie likes to give me pretties for my apartment that she no longer has use for…like this Ethan Allen table. Unfortunately it had an accident involving nail polish remover, a cotton ball, and a napkin and lets just leave it at that. Obvi, I don't want to scrap this table. It's Ethan Allen first of all and it's the perfect size/height. I came up with the idea to just paint over top my faux pas as a solution and I used a hand carved stamp purchased from Etsy to create a cutesy pattern. I have to say, it looks much better and I def salvaged it for now but I have a few ideas to tweak it further. Like, I feel it needs more cherries and I'd like to "shabby-chic" it with some sand paper and use a wax on the top to stain it a bit. My mom even threw out the intriguing suggestion of painting the base a high gloss cherry red. idk. I will update this post later on but until then here is how I got the table to point A. 

A. Acquire busted piece of adored furniture and supplies.

B. Paint over bonehead mistake and use tape so you don't make it worse. 

C. Stamp, Stamp, Stamp.

D. Let it dry and then stack your crap back on it!

Thanks for reading!

Bunny Tales

So I read this article a while back about how 2013 was the year of "Shaming." Ya know, fat shaming, slut shaming, and of course Dog Shaming. I know its 2014 now but my mom sent me these Bunny Shaming photos and I just about died. So hilarious! And speaking of silly buns, my bunny broke into the food stash again so I've had to start storing the bag on top of his hutch. The little glutton. He is so cute though! I think I've only ever been mad at him for 5 seconds total. 

 Sammy has moved up in the world and has this spiffy new crib. We are both enjoying it. I for its cuteness and Sammy for its coziness.

 I purchased this adorable wooden bunny box at an antique mall. I eyed it for a while and my mom bought it for me, lucky no one else snagged it! Its truly perfect for storing all the rabbity supplies. The, too adorable for words "peace, love , and bunny" signs were made by my little sister and add the perfect finishing touch. I am so glad he finally has such a great set up. We have struggled over the years trying to find the perfect combination of function and aesthetic. Having an "exotic" pet can definitely pose its challenges at times. They make all of these cute dog and cat pet beds and houses but finding a bunny house sucked! Even after I found the right thing I had to customize it to fit my tastes and not be a total eye sore in the home. I am finally happy and so is Sammy. He loves hopping in and out and using the ramp. What  type of home/enclosure do you other bunny/ small animal parents out there use? 

DIY: Holiday Greeting Card Wreath

Here is a simple, last minute Holiday DIY for you. Perhaps you have already amassed a good amount of greeting cards from all of your loved ones this season or perhaps you are like me and you just love to collect vintage cards. Either way, you can turn all of those pretty cards into a little wreath for another last minute decoration for your holiday party. All you need is a flat wreath, a stack of cards, some ribbon of sorts, and about 15 minutes. 

 Voila! Easy wreath! Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you all! 

Life Update

It was my birthday. I celebrated. It was swell.

My camera is busted. I will hopefully have a new one in a few weeks. This has been a major bummer for me though. 

my insomnia is back and I get the feeling its looking for revenge or something. I haven't been sleeping much at all these days. I have sadly watched the sunrise too many times. I have been coping by doing a lot of work from the couch. My view looks a lot like this these days...

I also got around to painting this cruddy ol' dresser. Now its a pretty new dresser. I'm not fully done arranging things in my room but I'm happy its finally painted and for the extra storage. 

before...

after...

While I was in the project spirit I managed to complete a few Pinterest projects. I always feel super bad ass if I actually get around to doing one of the things I pinned because lets be honest do any of us really have the time?

I had these cheap Ikea end tables laying around and I had seen a few chalkboard projects on Pinterest, one being a coffee table and so I coated the tops of these with chalk board paint. Now they have gone to live at my friends' coffee shop.

While I had the chalkboard paint out I painted a few wine bottles like these I saw on Pinterest 

I also tried filling my scentsy warmer with Downy unstopables and 

it worked and made my whole apartment smell like fresh laundry. Thank you Pinterest!

My mom and I decided to have yet another garage sale so I spent a good chunk of time going through all of my stuff one more time. I pulled out a good chunk and got it marked, bagged, and transported to my mom's garage already. I am getting less sentimental about things as I get older. I used to save every little scrap of paper but pretty soon I'm going to have like four things left. Not including my shoes of course. 

<3 K

Purse Makeover DIY

This is my most favorite lime green purse. As you can see from the before photo the straps had seen better days. The rest of the bag is fine I just loved this purse so much I literally wore the straps off. I didn't want to get rid of it so I decided to add new, less-destructable, handles.

SUPPLIES:

Split rings (like a key chain), bolt cutter, beaded chain, and of course a battered purse. 

DIRECTIONS:

1) Use your bolt cutter to cut the chain to your desired length. I purchased 3ft of beaded chain from the hardware store. If you don't have a bolt cutter you can usually ask a store employee to cut it into two pieces for you. 

2) Remove your old straps and add the split rings. My bag already had some convenient metal rings to hook mine onto. Depending on your bag and how your handles were attached you might have some too or fabric loops of some sort. Split rings are great because you can pull them apart and slide them onto pretty much anything and they are sturdy. If there are none and your straps were sewn directly to the bag, I recommend trimming the straps down but leaving enough to create your own loop with a few simple stitches.

3) Add your chain and its ready to wear!

Hooray! My purse is pretty again!

Thanks for stopping by! <3 Kirstie