This cute side table was made using three metal paper towel holders from Dollar Tree and a round wood circle from Lowe’s. I got the idea from The Crafty Couple on YouTube and here’s the link to my version on my channel: Side Table Tutorial I love how you can create something chic and modern on a very modest budget.
Sometimes you need to explore outside of your comfort zone. ā£ā£
I am part of the Let’s Go Camping challenge this month and let me tell you, I was struggling for inspo! I saw several things at Hobby Lobby that got my creativity juices flowing and here is one of my projects. To see the rest of them, you can check out my latest YouTube video, https://youtu.be/WYIY326Uq2U and let me know what you think! ā£ā£ā£ā£
Also, my idea of camping is a place that has 
air-conditioning, a mint on the pillow and a 
hot shower.
I collect Nancy Drew books and have since I was a kid.Ā Not the new ones but the *vintage* ones.Ā I occasionally still re-read them and if you have any that you donāt wantā¦send them my wayā¦haha!!Ā No, seriously, send them to me.Ā š
When I moved into my new office/craft space I wanted to have my Nancy Drew books out where I could see them.Ā We had some extra wood left over from the shelves we installed in the closet, admittedly I was the one *that* calculated wrong, so I asked the hubby to help me create a simple bookshelf and he obliged!Ā
We had two pieces of wood that were 50ā each in length so we used those for the outside frames.Ā I knew that the bookshelf would be holding my Nancy Drew collection so we calculated the number of books and the number of shelves to figure out spacing etc.Ā We ended up with four 15ā wide shelves.Ā Your measurements would of course vary depending on the wood that you are using.Ā The cuts would leave scraps but for me thatās just a bonus as I think of them as future craft projects.Ā š
We measured the wood and he cut it down for me.
{ if you look close you can see him making sawdustā¦haha! }
Then *we* began building the frame.Ā I say we because I was holding the nails and taking pics.Ā Both of which I consider crucial to the outcome of the project.Ā š
The frame is complete!
My hubby hung the shelf from a tree so that I could spray paint it.
Now donāt ask me why I donāt have a pic of the bookshelf hanging from the tree.Ā I mean, my only two jobs, aside from spray painting, were to hold the nails and take pics.Ā Oh well..
Here is the finished product. I chose gold because I was actually painting something else gold (that blog post is coming soon!) and so I thought it would be fun to have something else in the office that was gold as well.
Hereās the wall where it will hang.
Hereās the hubby using his awesome hanging skills to hang the shelf for me.
And hereās how it looks!Ā Iām not really adding anything else to the shelf as it is actually behind the door that is never closed so no one will ever really see it.Ā Except yāall, who are reading this blogā¦haha!!Ā If you have any ideas on how to liven it up, Iām all ears.Ā Iām just smiling because I can see it from my desk so that makes me happy. š
And thatās it!Ā Super easy peasy and we completed this entire project in one day.Ā
What projects have you completed lately?
(((hugs))) ~lisa
Itās not like the stool was actually broken or anything.Ā Itās just that the bottom of the legs looked like this.
And we have dark hardwood floors in the closet.Ā I am short so I need this stool to reach the top rods and didnāt want to risk the stool scratching the floor.
This was my temporary solution to that.
Not quite the look I wanted in my closet so I thought that Iād add some felt to the bottom of the legs.Ā Sounds simple enough, right?
But first I have to tell you this.Ā When I turned over the stool I noticed it said this:
I must say that anytime I hear or see the word, āMalaysiaā I think of Zoolander and THIS SCENE,
Okay, back to my project.Ā
I turned the stool over to size the bottom of the legs.Ā Please disregard the current covering on my craft room stool (yesā¦itās an old pair of shortsā¦I can only get to one project at a timeā¦haha!!) and the pile of books on the floor.Ā The room is a work in progress.
I figured out that the size of the bottom of the leg was approximately the same size as this paper die cut I just bought!Ā Hurray!!Ā This will make it faster and easier for sure.
I had some felt that had adhesive on one side so all I had to do was press out four circles, right?Ā
Wrong!Ā
As you can see at the top of the pic the die cut only worked on the peel away paper and not the felt material.Ā I then traced one of the washers I was using for another project and traced out 8 circles total.Ā I wanted to double up on the felt so there was enough padding between the bottom of the stool leg and the hardwood floor.
After cutting the circles out I peeled off the adhesive cover.Ā I then applied a small amount of hot glue and put one circle on.Ā I waited just a couple of moments then put a little more hot glue on and then the second circle.Ā I repeated this for all four legs.
It looks like it is going to work out just fine.Ā I am also going to apply the felt to the bottom of my laundry baskets so I can get rid of that bathroom rug that I am currently using.Ā
Have you āfixedā anything around your house lately?Ā What projects are you working on?
(((hugs))) ~lisa
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.Ā 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.Ā Here are some cards that were in my paper craft box.Ā
*If you notice on the right side youāll see some paint samples.Ā Future project that I canāt wait to try.Ā
I decided to cut the cards down to reuse them for tags for Christmas presents.Ā Some of the cards just didnāt fit the project and others seemed to be made to be turned into something else!Ā I think they turned out pretty cute!
What do you do with your old Christmas cards?Ā Do you have another fun way to repurpose them?Ā
(((hugs))) ~lisa
I have several friends on facebook that are doing the āno chemicalsā thing in their household.Ā They are making homemade cleaners etc. and it all sounds very interesting to me.Ā Plus they say that it is less expensive and Iāll all about that.Ā So Iāve already been kind of researching this subject when I was about to do laundry one day.Ā
We were out of dryer sheets and I naturally googled what I could use in itās place.Ā Out of all the options I realized that I didnāt really have any of the ingredients needed to make a substitute dryer sheet.Ā 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.Ā Sounded interesting so I put that on my project list.Ā
Keep in mind I will be saying *ball* a lot.Ā Every time I wrote the word I kept thinking, haā¦you just said ball.Ā Juvenile I know but carry on.
Hereās what you need:
After purchasing this I read that Fishermenās Wool takes longer to felt.Ā I havenāt made the balls out of any other kind of wool so I cannot say for sure whether or not itās true.
I do know you have to be sure and get 100% wool.Ā Or you can use felting wool but I hadnāt heard of that before.Ā I purchased this for about $5.50 after my coupon so for two that comes out to $2.75 each.Ā Not too bad.Ā 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.Ā
Hereās how you do it:
Have you ever wound yarn into a ball?Ā Well that is pretty much what you will do to begin making your wool dryer ball.Ā
Start by wrapping the yarn around your fingers about 10 times.Ā
I then start wrapping it around the opposite way.Ā
Ā 
I then folded that in half and then wound around that.Ā Keep winding until you have a ball the size you want.Ā According to the various sites I checked before making these, the balls can be any size that youād like.Ā I tried to get two balls out of the skein I purchased.Ā
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.Ā 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 wonāt unravel in the next steps.Ā
Tie off the pantyhose so the balls are separate and wonāt felt together.Ā
Ā 
You then place this in with your next load of clothes that you are going to wash on hot and āwashā them.Ā I think the point of that is to get them wet but Iām not entirely sure.Ā
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.Ā I checked after each washing but it wasnāt until the 4th cycle that I thought it looked felted enough.Ā You can tell by lightly scraping your fingernail over the yarn to see if it moves.Ā After the 4th time it didnāt move very much so I pronounced it finished!Ā
I cut it open and was still nervous that it wasnāt felted enough but it held together.
Yea!!Ā Ready to test out on my next load of clothes.Ā
Ā 
I washed a load of clothes today and when I threw the clothes in the dryer I tossed in the wool dryer balls.Ā I honestly canāt say if they dried faster as I didnāt really check but it did seem to reduce the static.Ā There was a tiny bit but not like it has been.Ā
You can also put a couple drops of essential oils on the balls to give it a scent but I havenāt tried that yet.Ā
**UPDATE** Ā There seemed to be static with some of my loads. Ā I read some more on that and they said if you have synthetic material clothing you Ā might want to consider drying that separately. Ā 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. Ā And it seemed that the balls never fully felted.
How was your experience?
(((hugs))) ~lisa
So my hubby, aka Mr Awesome, painted the desk that we purchased off of Craigslist that went into my office.Ā The knobs were plain and I went to the store to purchase some newer ones.Ā Wouldnāt you know it, all the knobs I like were 8 bucks a piece!!Ā No way was I going to pay that.Ā So what did I do?Ā I bought some super cheap ones for about $.70 each and covered them with fabric.Ā
I gathered my supplies:
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.Ā
I cut it out and then used the applicator to put some Mod Podge on the face of the drawer knob.Ā 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 wouldnāt be too bulky.Ā I applied the Mod Podge and tucked the material around the knobs.Ā I then let those set until dry.
Now to attach them to the desk.Ā
I think they turned out pretty good and I like how it pulls the color of the wall (True Turquoise by Glidden).Ā
When I mentioned above that they didnāt turn out perfectly hereās what Iām talking about.Ā On one of them itās a little bit uneven on the underside.
Ā 
On another you can see the gaps in the material.
All in all, for about $3, Iām very pleased with how they turned out.Ā
Have you tried any DIY projects lately?
(((hugs))) ~lisa
I made a super cute little craft for my grandkids and nieces and I thought Iād share with yāall because it was so easy!Ā
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.Ā I bought 7 and it was enough to harvest enough to do 9 projects with 15 pieces of candy in each.Ā Now if someone tells me thereās a way to just buy the banana part that would be genius.Ā
Monkey stickers ā the inspiration for this project came from this “I’m bananas for you” that I have on my Pinterest board ā Cute and fun ideas to make.Ā If you take a peek you will see that my version will save you some time and possibly some sanity.Ā
See through pouches or sandwich bags ā I opted for the little bags that you can find at most craft stores.Ā If I hadnāt had these on hand then I was going to use a sandwich bag and just tie it up an attach the card to that.Ā
White cardstock ā I had these that are a fun shape but square cards would work just as well.
Ribbon ā I bought a color that I thought would coordinate with my monkey stickers.
Hole punch ā 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.Ā 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.Ā
Ā 
For some reason when I put on the monkey stickers I placed them all the way in the corner and that resulted in some āemptyā space that Iām not totally happy with.Ā
And hereās how it all turned out!Ā I hope the grandkids and nieces like it!
(((hugs))) ~lisa
I came across several packages of unused coffee filters at work.Ā About 6 months prior I had thrown out about 8 packages so I knew that we weren’t going to use these either.Ā 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!Ā The decision was made.Ā 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
Hereās 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.Ā Well not totally wing it.Ā But I wasnāt following step by step either.Ā
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.Ā The amount of coloring you are adding depends on the coloring you are going for.Ā I was trying for a pinkish color.Ā
I then added all the coffee filters and let them soak for about 30 seconds.Ā I then wrung them out.Ā You can wring them out pretty good as they are not too flimsy.Ā You will want to get as much water out of them as possible to help with the next step.Ā
I then tried to just air dry them by leaving them spread out on the counter.Ā They were taking ::forever:: so I put them in the dryer.Ā 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.Ā 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.
Ā 
Ā 
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.Ā 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 upĀ But when I tried to attach it to the ribbon I was going to hang it with they just looked kind of floppy.Ā And floppy was not the look I was going for.Ā
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.Ā
Here is a pic of how it looked in the break room at work.Ā Notice how we took it old school with the decorations by adding the paper chain!
(((hugs))) ~lisa
Ā
Now this is a different type of bacon and eggs than you’re used to!Ā I actually got this recipe years ago when I worked at a Kwik Kopy (a franchise print shop).Ā A lady came in to make copies of this recipe to send to her relatives.Ā As I helped her make the copies, I asked her about it and she let me make a copy.Ā WoooHooo!!Ā And then, a few days later also brought me a sampleā¦bonus!!Ā They were yummy and super easy to make and I wanted to share with all of yāall!
To make your own very yummy bacon and eggs all you need is:
A bag of M&M’s (sorting out the yellow ones but of course other colors are fine too)
A bag of stick pretzels
Almond bark
Here’s how you make it:
Sort the M&M’s and put aside all the yellow ones.Ā You can also use the other colors too but for the “true bacon and eggs” I use yellow.
Arrange the pretzel sticks (this is the “bacon”) two by two on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Melt the almond bark (this represents the “egg whites”) and then spoon out teaspoonfuls onto the pretzel stick pairings/sets.Ā I usually do about 7-10 sets at a time so that the melted almond bark is still a little soft when I add the M&Mās.Ā Ā
Next, add two yellow M&M’s (these are the “egg yolks”) onto the melted almond bark that is just beginning to firm up.Ā
You can put it in the fridge to set faster or just let them set naturally.Ā It’s a fun little treat that I hope you enjoy.Ā
I typically make this around Christmastime and no, I donāt have a reason for that it just seems to be when I do it.Ā
What fun things to eat have you made lately?
(((hugs))) ~lisa
Our Gray House 