DIY

The Office Closet Reveal

April 13, 2014February 25, 2018 Our Gray HouseLeave a comment

I have been wanting a office/craft space for FOREVER and we are finally getting around to getting that done! I am already using my office but there are still some decorating details that I am working on. I’ll share as we get those completed.

The closet before was just your average, normal small closet.

It originally had a top shelf and of course a bar to hold all your clothes. We took all of that out and Marvin removed the popcorn texture from the ceiling.

Next, Marvin painted the back wall True Turquoise by Glidden to match the rest of the space.

He then measured for the built in shelves.

We bought pre-finished wood and measure out for each shelf. I encourage you to measure for each shelf because as we found out, not all the shelves were exactly the same in measurements.

After that was installed I loaded everything back in! Now, my office/craft closet may not be as *neat* as some others you may have seen but I think it’s absolutely FABULOUS!!! I love it that I can see my supplies and I can’t wait to get started on some more projects.

Top shelf I put all the office supplies.

The next shelves hold crafting supplies and gift bags/tissue paper. There are tons of awesome craft projects just waiting to happen sitting on those shelves. Notice the avocado green vintage Corning Ware bowl on the left. Love it!

And my mom was totally giving away a tub full of old Tupperware etc. so I snagged the large round container to store craft stuff in. On top of it is a wooden box my Uncle Kenny made for me. Notice the stack of Scentsy bars? If you need Scentsy my sister can hook you up! If you look close you’ll spy a roll of pennies and quarters for me to use on our next road trip so I can make more smooshed pennies.

On the bottom I have two hooks for all my tote bags.

This hook (below) *always* cracks me up. Soon I am going to make the above hook look like this…haha!!

The tote bags are in the center and on the left side is our luggage. The large tote on the left was a gift from my sister for being a part of her wedding party. I use it to add some of the patches we collect on our trips.

The tote on the right is my AFWM (AF WingMoms) tote that I take with me when I go up to MEPS to volunteer. 🙂

The white container is what we tote all of our toiletries in on our trips and then two laptop carriers.

On the right side is where my gift wrap and large gift bags are stored.

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY

How to make homemade laundry soap

April 2, 2014February 25, 2018 Our Gray House7 Comments

Today was the day that we finally did it! We made our own homemade laundry soap! There are a ton of variations out there and for our first run we decided to try the dry version.

Here’s what you need:

3 bars of Fels Naptha laundry soap (5.5 oz.) $1.69 each
2 cups baking soda (I already had this box on hand)
1 box washing soda (55 oz.) $4.29
1 container Oxy-clean (5 lbs.) $14.99
1 container Epsom salt (3.5 lb. container) $9.96
1 box Borax (76 oz.) $5.79

Total spent – rounded up to $44 for everything.

As I said before, there are soooo many versions out there and probably as many different reasons for the versions. Some add this ingredient for this result and some add that ingredient for a different result. I just found one I liked, that looked easy and bought the ingredients.

When I initially went to the store I couldn’t find the washing soda and the Fels Naptha. Turns out they have ALL that at our local hardware store!

Our first step was to grate all the Fels Naptha.

Then we combined all the remaining ingredients in two garbage sacks. We then swished everything around to mix it up. Because of all the ingredients, it is pretty heavy.

Next we had to figure out how to get it in the containers. I had two one gallon containers, they used to hold tea, and was going to try and fill them up. We thought about cutting off part of the corner and pouring it that way but ended up using a funnel. It worked pretty well but took a while to do it.

The laundry soap totally filled two one-gallon containers and also filled up my ceramic container. My ceramic container used to be part of a set that I used to hold flour etc. so it has a handy tablespoon on the side for measuring the soap.

And that was it!! Overall, besides grating the soap, it was pretty easy peasy.

The question many folks ask is…how much is it saving me? We spent $44 on our homemade laundry soap ingredients but that made enough for approximately 300-600 loads using 1-2T at a time for each load. Recently in the paper we saw Tide advertised for $10.99 and the box did 53 loads. If you multiply $11 (we rounded up on the price of the Tide) times 4 to equal what we spent on our homemade laundry soap, the total is $44 for 212 loads. Our math could be off, math was never my strong suit and I’m sure there are more intricate ways to figure out cost per load etc., but whatever way you look at it, we will be saving a lot of money.

Here is my container filled with laundry soap! As you can see I’m in the process of making two more wool dryer balls. They have about 3 more washings/dryings to go and they’ll be ready! We tried the soap tonight and it worked great!! I will keep you updated on how it goes.

What new things have you tried recently?

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY

How to repurpose old Christmas cards

March 15, 2014February 25, 2018 Our Gray HouseLeave a comment

At Christmastime we get our fair share of Christmas cards and I never really know what to do with them at the end of the season. Many of them are too pretty to just toss and of course we keep the ones that have pics of our friends and their families on them but there are many that I would like to repurpose in another way to enjoy them again.

In my craft closet I have many bins to separate my craft items. Here are some cards that were in my paper craft box.

*If you notice on the right side you’ll see some paint samples. Future project that I can’t wait to try.

I decided to cut the cards down to reuse them for tags for Christmas presents. Some of the cards just didn’t fit the project and others seemed to be made to be turned into something else! I think they turned out pretty cute!

What do you do with your old Christmas cards? Do you have another fun way to repurpose them?

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY

How to make wool dryer balls

March 6, 2014February 25, 2018 Our Gray House2 Comments

I have several friends on facebook that are doing the “no chemicals” thing in their household. They are making homemade cleaners etc. and it all sounds very interesting to me. Plus they say that it is less expensive and I’ll all about that. So I’ve already been kind of researching this subject when I was about to do laundry one day.

We were out of dryer sheets and I naturally googled what I could use in it’s place. Out of all the options I realized that I didn’t really have any of the ingredients needed to make a substitute dryer sheet. I did see a way to make wool dryer balls which are supposed to cut down on drying time, thus saving us money, there are no chemicals in it and it is supposed to reduce static electricity among other things. Sounded interesting so I put that on my project list.

Keep in mind I will be saying *ball* a lot. Every time I wrote the word I kept thinking, ha…you just said ball. Juvenile I know but carry on.

Here’s what you need:

Wool yarn. You need to use a yarn that 100% wool otherwise it won’t “felt”. The amount will depend on how many you are trying to make. I purchased one skein to do my test balls and it made two good sized balls.
Old pair of pantyhose
A small crochet hook
Scissors

After purchasing this I read that Fishermen’s Wool takes longer to felt. I haven’t made the balls out of any other kind of wool so I cannot say for sure whether or not it’s true.

I do know you have to be sure and get 100% wool. Or you can use felting wool but I hadn’t heard of that before. I purchased this for about $5.50 after my coupon so for two that comes out to $2.75 each. Not too bad. After a quick online search, it seems the cheapest you can purchase them for is a little over $5 each so I feel pretty good about that.

Here’s how you do it:

Have you ever wound yarn into a ball? Well that is pretty much what you will do to begin making your wool dryer ball.

Start by wrapping the yarn around your fingers about 10 times.

I then start wrapping it around the opposite way.

I then folded that in half and then wound around that. Keep winding until you have a ball the size you want. According to the various sites I checked before making these, the balls can be any size that you’d like. I tried to get two balls out of the skein I purchased.

Once you have wound the ball to the size you want you then need to cut the yarn and pull it through several layers using a crochet hook. I pulled it through one spot then pulled it through another for good measure.

Next you need some old pantyhose and you are going to put the balls inside of it so they won’t unravel in the next steps.

Tie off the pantyhose so the balls are separate and won’t felt together.

You then place this in with your next load of clothes that you are going to wash on hot and “wash” them. I think the point of that is to get them wet but I’m not entirely sure.

Next, place them in the dryer with the load of clothes and dry.

I read that it could take anywhere from 4-5 times for the yarn to felt. I checked after each washing but it wasn’t until the 4th cycle that I thought it looked felted enough. You can tell by lightly scraping your fingernail over the yarn to see if it moves. After the 4th time it didn’t move very much so I pronounced it finished!

I cut it open and was still nervous that it wasn’t felted enough but it held together.

Yea!! Ready to test out on my next load of clothes.

I washed a load of clothes today and when I threw the clothes in the dryer I tossed in the wool dryer balls. I honestly can’t say if they dried faster as I didn’t really check but it did seem to reduce the static. There was a tiny bit but not like it has been.

You can also put a couple drops of essential oils on the balls to give it a scent but I haven’t tried that yet.

**UPDATE** There seemed to be static with some of my loads. I read some more on that and they said if you have synthetic material clothing you might want to consider drying that separately. We now air dry those items and we haven’t had any more static issues.

**UPDATE** I stopped using these as they actually broke the baffles in my dryer. And it seemed that the balls never fully felted.

How was your experience?

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY

Easy drawer knobs makeover

February 27, 2014February 25, 2018 Our Gray HouseLeave a comment

So my hubby, aka Mr Awesome, painted the desk that we purchased off of Craigslist that went into my office. The knobs were plain and I went to the store to purchase some newer ones. Wouldn’t you know it, all the knobs I like were 8 bucks a piece!! No way was I going to pay that. So what did I do? I bought some super cheap ones for about $.70 each and covered them with fabric.

I gathered my supplies:

Drawer knob, $.70 at my local hardware store
Fabric, $.80 and I clearly bought more than enough
Scissors
Pen
Mod Podge
Applicator

Basically I traced the lid of the Mod Podge onto the back of the fabric to get a circle larger than the face of the knob.

I cut it out and then used the applicator to put some Mod Podge on the face of the drawer knob. I placed the knob on the material and let it set for a few moments and then turned it and set it on the base and let it dry.

Next, I cut notches around the material that had since dried to the top of the knob, so when I glued those down they wouldn’t be too bulky. I applied the Mod Podge and tucked the material around the knobs. I then let those set until dry.

Now to attach them to the desk.

I think they turned out pretty good and I like how it pulls the color of the wall (True Turquoise by Glidden).

When I mentioned above that they didn’t turn out perfectly here’s what I’m talking about. On one of them it’s a little bit uneven on the underside.

On another you can see the gaps in the material.

All in all, for about $3, I’m very pleased with how they turned out.

Have you tried any DIY projects lately?

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY

We are bananas for you!!

February 2, 2014February 25, 2018 Our Gray HouseLeave a comment

I made a super cute little craft for my grandkids and nieces and I thought I’d share with y’all because it was so easy!

You will need:

Several boxes of Runts candy – Depending on how many you are making will determine the number of boxes that need to be purchased. I bought 7 and it was enough to harvest enough to do 9 projects with 15 pieces of candy in each. Now if someone tells me there’s a way to just buy the banana part that would be genius.

Monkey stickers – the inspiration for this project came from this “I’m bananas for you” that I have on my Pinterest board – Cute and fun ideas to make. If you take a peek you will see that my version will save you some time and possibly some sanity.

See through pouches or sandwich bags – I opted for the little bags that you can find at most craft stores. If I hadn’t had these on hand then I was going to use a sandwich bag and just tie it up an attach the card to that.

White cardstock – I had these that are a fun shape but square cards would work just as well.

Ribbon – I bought a color that I thought would coordinate with my monkey stickers.

Hole punch – to punch out the holes to put the ribbon through

I laid out how I thought I would place the monkey sticker on the card

I then wrote on the cards and determined where I wanted to place my holes for the ribbon. I punched out the holes and placed it on the banana filled bag and marked where the holes were so I could punch them out.

For some reason when I put on the monkey stickers I placed them all the way in the corner and that resulted in some “empty” space that I’m not totally happy with.

And here’s how it all turned out! I hope the grandkids and nieces like it!

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY · Lifestyle

Snowman Terra Cotta Pots

December 13, 2013February 25, 2018 Our Gray HouseLeave a comment

I absolutely LOVE Pinterest! There are so many super cute ideas and pinning them is so much fun! On my Pinterest board, ho…ho…ho…holiday cheer, I have several ideas that I wanted to try and make for this holiday season. As you can see, if you glanced at my board it is filled with snowmen ideas. I just LOVE snowmen!

You need just a few things to recreate these adorable little pots.

Terra cotta pots
White spray paint
Acrylic paint in black and orange
Netting/tulle or cellophane
Peppermints
Ribbon to tie up the packages

To begin, make sure the pots are clean and free of dust and dirt.

Next, paint the pots evenly with the white spray paint. My fabulous assistant (aka my awesome husband) used a screw/bolt with a head larger than the hole in the bottom of the pot and used it to hang the pot so he could spray paint it easily. It worked like a charm!

We then set them out to dry and the lovely Texas sun.

I also painted a few of the pots with regular acrylic paint. We’ll see at the end if they turned out differently.

I painted on the black rim. And ended up doing two coats for better coverage.

Next I traced on the eyes and the carrot nose with a pencil. I then used black paint for the eyes/mouth and orange for the nose.

I think the mouth looks a little wide so I may repaint them. We’ll see.

I had purchased some tulle already cut into 10” circles to make it easier on myself and put a handful of peppermints in the center of each one. I then placed it in the pot. It did not leave enough to tie off with a ribbon so I now have 25 10” tulle circles to use for another project!

I then bought some gallon sized plastic bags at the dollar store and guess how much they cost me? That’s right, a dollar!!! haha!! I cut them to make sort of a cone and then filled it up with peppermints and placed it inside the pot. Wrapped it up with a cute bit of ribbon and there you have it!!

What fun things have you found on Pinterest lately?
What types of crafts have you been working on?

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY

How to make a Bobby Pin Holder

November 20, 2013February 25, 2018 Our Gray HouseLeave a comment

I’m always searching for bobby pins in my drawer and I figured this would be a great way to keep them together and be something cute to make.

To make these bobby pin holders you will need:

A magnetic paper clip dispenser –find similar here
Some craft/scrapbook paper
Mod Podge and applicator (I used a sponge/foam paintbrush)
Scissors, paper cutter
Bobby pins

I laid out the paper, measured the magnetic paper clip holder and traced a line to cut the paper into strips the width of the holder and the length to be enough to wrap around the holder with just a little overage.

I then dipped the sponge applicator in the Mod Podge, coated the magnetic paper clip holder one side at a time while adhering the paper to it.

So my first few attempts resulted in this.

If you will notice there is some extra paper on the corners. I hadn’t noticed that the paper clip holder was not perfectly square.

Well, that will just not do so I laid the holder on a piece of paper to create a pattern.

I then used the pattern to draw lines on the paper.

I cut “slits” so that the paper would lay better on the holder as I was adhering it.

Then I repeated the Mod Podge and adhering steps listed above.

TA-DAH!!! This is the result! Pretty cute if I do say so myself!

You can do them in a variety of colors and can even use fabric, although I will say cutting the fabric was a little more tedious so I stuck with the paper.

For now, I am not going to add the paper to the top but you could to give it an even more finished look. And if you are feeling super creative there are also lots of fun embellishments you could add such as ribbon, twine or even bedazzle it or add some beads!

These make great stocking stuffers and are pretty quick to put together.

Let me know what you think and if you’ve tried something similar!

Happy crafting!!

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY

Coffee Filter Craft

November 15, 2013February 25, 2018 Our Gray HouseLeave a comment

I came across several packages of unused coffee filters at work. About 6 months prior I had thrown out about 8 packages so I knew that we weren’t going to use these either. I decided to look up on Pinterest things that I could do with coffee filters.

As luck would have it there was a baby shower coming up at work and I stumbled upon a really cute garland made out of coffee filters, so BAM! The decision was made. I was going to try it.

Here’s what you need:

Coffee filters (you can get them super cheap at the dollar store or save them from being tossed at work like I did)

Food coloring

A pot of cold tap water

Glue gun

Here’s what you do:

Now I had read the instructions on several projects but when it came time to do it I decided to just wing it. Well not totally wing it. But I wasn’t following step by step either.

I gathered the coffee filters, some red food coloring (my project was going to be pink for the baby shower), and a pot with cold water.

I put some red food coloring, about 3-5 drops in the pot of cold water. The amount of coloring you are adding depends on the coloring you are going for. I was trying for a pinkish color.

I then added all the coffee filters and let them soak for about 30 seconds. I then wrung them out. You can wring them out pretty good as they are not too flimsy. You will want to get as much water out of them as possible to help with the next step.

I then tried to just air dry them by leaving them spread out on the counter. They were taking ::forever:: so I put them in the dryer. Now I checked on them every 30 seconds or so until they were dry because I didn’t want anything catching on fire or something equally hazardous. They dried really quickly that way.

{I totally need to make sure the lighting is better for my pics!}

Next I took them individually and folded them in half then brought up the other two sides to make the beginning of a flower shape.

After folding I stapled them at the bottom to hold them together.

I then got out my glue gun and started to glue them into a white coffee filter.

The original plan was to make a bunch of little flower balls but things didn’t go quite as planned.

The flower didn’t look full enough to me. Hmmm….not sure really what to do as the original plan also included gluing the two of the above flowers together but like I said, it was not looking as full as I was wanting it to.

They look fine in the pic above (except for the lighting issues) as they look fluffy and like they would hold up But when I tried to attach it to the ribbon I was going to hang it with they just looked kind of floppy. And floppy was not the look I was going for.

After some deliberation and multiple attempts at forcing them to look like some of the pics on the internet, I ended up just making a big flower ball and this is the finished product!

So while in my mind it was going to be several much smaller flower balls I’m still pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here is a pic of how it looked in the break room at work. Notice how we took it old school with the decorations by adding the paper chain!

What cool things have you created lately?
Have you ever taken something and re-used it in a different way?

(((hugs))) ~lisa

DIY · Lifestyle

Crochet Bead Necklace

November 13, 2013February 25, 2018 Our Gray House7 Comments

In my pursuit of all things crafty, I stumbled across a post about how to make a crochet bead necklace and knew I had to try it. I mean, how hard could it be?

The materials you need to make this are some crochet thread, I used Aunt Lydia’s crochet thread in size Classic 10 (I clearly bought MORE than enough), a size B crochet hook, and some beads.

First need to string the beads onto the thread. I ran into some trouble trying to do this as the head of the needles I tried to use were too big for the opening of the smaller beads. I resorted to getting out a needle threader and doing it that way. Took a little longer but worked just fine.

Then begin with a simple chain stitch, I started with 10. I then brought a bead up and did a chain stitch to anchor it. I then crocheted 3 more chain stitches and then pulled another bead up. I continued on until I had used all the beads.

I think it turned out pretty cute and it was super easy to make!

Total cost of this project was $8.98.

$2.99 for the thread and I obviously have a TON left over so you could purchase a much smaller amount. I have this crafter’s fear of not having enough to complete the project and then if I go back to get more they won’t have what I need. So yes, I overbought. I spent $5.99 for the beads. I had a coupon for the thread so I got it for $1.79 at Michaels and the beads were on sale for $2.99 at Joanns so my total cost was $4.78. I have some beads left over to make some earrings and a ridiculous amount of crochet thread for a future project.

What crafts have you made lately? Feel free to share!

(((hugs))) ~lisa