Playing Musical Furniture

Have you ever played Musical Furniture?

After 5 years of living in our house, I am STILL playing musical furniture!  

There are pieces of furniture in our home that I just don't really know what to do with.  Some are my husbands family's so we want to keep them, but just haven't found the perfect spot for them!  

Last weekend, we moved the living room around and in doing so we had a piece of furniture that just didn't have a "home". So I thought about it all week, and finally figured out a way to find a home (for now) for this random piece. But in doing so I had to do some moving, cutting and rethinking.

But what I can say about this recent game of musical furniture, is that I am SO happy with what happened.  Two happy mistakes that are already making a difference! 

(my house is very old, and has little to no storage or closets! Making for some creative ways to deal with some items!)

First up to be moved was a bookshelf that was holding our microwave and random things.  

I decided that this is where my initial random piece was going, so the bookshelf needed a new home.

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but I finally did it, because I had something to put the microwave on. (See what I mean, about musical furniture?)

The goal was to cut the bookshelf down to size and have it be the part of my island. 

And boy, could I not be happier!  First of all, it made my island super sturdy.  The island has been a work in progress since we started it! We just haven't come across the perfect piece to add, but not anymore! Plus,  I got more than I bargained for! 

When I cut the sides of the shelf down to the height I needed, I decided to put the moveable shelf as high up as I could so that it would support the island top. Well, it wasn't as high up as I thought it would be. But it created a little shelf.  Look! Perfect for all my cutting boards!

isn't that great? Oh the little things!

Onto my next happy mistake!  

My piece that came out of the island needed a home. 

Since it is not very deep, I thought it would fit in my pantry... 

Not only is it the perfect depth, but heightwise too! 

AND it created another little shelf perfect for my cake pans!

I'm so happy that this all fell into place!  

And didn't take me days and days and days to figure out!

What have you done lately, that worked out better than you thought?

Calling All Crafters: 44th Edition

Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 

Shaken Together's

Valentines Advent Banner

A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...

Shaken Together's

Valentines Advent Banner

AND







Simply Designing's
Cinnamon Bun Waffles
(Genius, I tell you!)

Want a button?

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Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!

Lifesaver Series: Homemade Febreeze

Another tip to save you time, money and some frustration!

Gosh! I am loving all the awesome homemade "recipes' for different cleaning products I am finding all over the internet!

Especially today's!  

Homemade Febreeze!

This "recipe" not only saves me money, but I also am able to use it! 

If you have water, baking soda and fabric softener around you can whip up a batch in no time!

There is something in real Febreeze that makes me wheeze terribly! But not anymore!  I can now use this around my home and not have to worry about me breathing in something that obviously I am allergic to!

*Don't forget you can even make your own fabric softener!*

Shalom Take Two!

Here I go again!

I'm attempting Shalom again!

Last time I used tiny yarn and tiny needles, all while attempting to adjust for my size. 

Not good.  I did okay until I had to CO for the body.  

This time I feel I am doing much better!

I even took it off the needles ( onto scrap yarn) to try on before I bound off for the sleeves. I pinned where I thought they should be and adjusted that way!

Layered Wrist Warmers

Can you guess where I got the inspiration for this?

If you guessed Pinterest, you got it!

One day I was browsing pinterest and found this pin.

Which made me have a total duh moment. Layered  Wrist Warmers!

I've always liked the idea of wrist warmers, but where I live it's a glove or no glove situation. 

I used to be confused by wrist warmers! Not anymore!

Take any wrist warmer pattern ( I made this one up as I went) and layer a pair of cheap stretchy gloves and your all set!  I gifted a set with both a pair of fingerless and regular gloves!

For both the knit and crochet pair, I just used my hand as a guide and repeated for the second warmer.  I prefered the crochet on because it had the shape for the thumb versus just a space when I seamed up the knit version. Back to the needles for a better knit version!

What have you been knitting? Crocheting?

I'm working a big knit project that I will hopefully finish soon! 

Replying to comments!

It used to be so hard sometimes to reply to comments! Sometimes you could get the email address of the commenter and others you couldn't. Then sometimes I would want to reply on the blog to so that others with the same question or thought could see my answer too. Which made replying to every comment so much harder than it needed to be.

Well, not anymore!

I have to thank Jaimie from C.R.A.F.T for figuring it out!  Blogger must have made an update and some blogs were just able to do it, while I couldn't. But with some investigating Jaimie figured it out!  

(She shared over on Facebook! I love all the little updates she gives over there!)

(If you use blogger's old interface, go here, that's how Jaimie figured it out!)

With just one click (in the comments sections of your dashboard) and you will be on your way to easier reply's! Yay!

See comment Location?  Make sure that is on Embedded.

I clicked the ? just to make sure it was right, and there it is! Reply right on comment form!

I am so happy that I know can reply to you guys easier!

Thanks Jaimie for figuring it out!

Calling All Crafters: 43rd Edition

Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 

A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...



Ellen's Creative Passage
Bottle Lamp
(Seriously? The cork holds the light!)

AND







Sew Can Do's
On the Go Knitting Bag
(But it should be call the On the Go bag, it can be for so much more!)
(And I LOVE.Love.LOVE the fabric!)

Want a button?

<center><a href="http://allthingsfee.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/5588365611_b3055bb44c_m.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Mondays @ All Things Fee!" /></a></center>

Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!

Lifesavers: Leftovers to Soup

Another tip to save you time, money and some frustration!

Do you ever find yourself looking at vegetable leftovers and have to think about if you want to throw them out, or put them in the fridge hoping someone eats them?  

I do. Almost every night! I make vegetables with dinner every night and there is almost always a small amount left, not enough to save for even one serving for the next night, but enough to feel bad about wasting.

Not anymore!  I love to make soup, I could eat it every day. So I decided why not freeze all the little leftovers so that when it's full I have the veggies for soup?

I just took a freezer safe container, and threw in the leftover corn from after last nights dinner, and popped it in the fridge. As I was prepping to put dinner in the crock pot ( I love that thing!) I had some extra onion leftover. I threw that in there too!  

Now, when my container is full of veggie goodness I will heat up my soup pot with some olive oil, throw this in and add broth to make an almost instant vegetable soup!

Special Numbers Art

Before Christmas I saw this on Pinterest, and thought I could so make that!

Instead of creating it in Photoshop, printing and framing it I decided to paint it instead.

This was super simple too!

First I painted my canvas background, I "cheated" and spray painted it brown. 

Next, in a word document I picked out my font and typed in my dates. 

Our dates are our first date, day my husband proposed, out wedding date, and our boys birthdays.

Next I took a pencil and scribbled all over the back, and then placed it on my canvas.

I traced all my dates at once so that the spacing was correct.

Lastly, I started painting them in with white. 

I kind of wish that I made this super duper long, so that I could add dates down the road!

Wouldn't that be fun? Say Carter's first day of school? Or losing a tooth? When they get older and get married?

Car Bag Organizer

Are you like me and feel like your always looking for a plastic bag when in the car?

I feel like I am always looking for a bag to either stick garbage, or corral items to take into the house. 

But now I have a place for the bags ( other than in a plastic bag, that they fall out of. 

Or in the trunk and when I open the trunk and its windy and they go flying out into the parking lot.)

After seeing this on pinterest, I knew this would be perfect! 

Not only did it cost me nothing, it was a quick fix too!

It took me longer to gather my supplies!

Paper, empty wipe container, tape, scissors!

Roll paper around wipes container, cut to size! There was a groove on my container, so I measured that (6 inches) and cut  my scrapbook (12x12 paper) in half. Taped at the center seam.

Added a strip of yellow paper to hide my tape.

Used a cute flower sticker to then hide that piece of tape.

Filled with plastic bags and put in my car! 

Yea! No more chasing after plastic bags in parking lots!

New Stitch, New Scarf

In December, one of my readers Elisabeth linked up a crochet contest to Calling All Crafters.  And I decided why not? It's right after the holidays, it will get me in the swing of crafting again.

The rules were simple, create either a scarf,shawl, fingerless mitts, or chair cushion. But the catch was you had to use one of the stitch patterns that she had chosen.  They were all based on the chain-single crochet (ch.sc) stitch. The stitch was new to me, so I was up for the challenge!

Seeing as the stitch pattern was new, I decided to make a scarf so that I didn't stress myself out!  I didn't think I could figure out shaping and what not with the new stitch pattern. So I went with a simple scarf. But what makes this scarf extra fun is that it is super stretchy because of the stitch pattern, and I used a size N hook to make it every more airy and stretchy.

Want to create your own?

Hook: Size N (Also known at 10mm)

Yarn: Worsted Weight Acrylic

Finished Size: 4" x 70"

You will need to know how to chain, and ch.sc to complete this scarf.

From Elisabeth's site:

"this is how you crochet the stitch (descriptions taken from: mypicot.com):

"chain-single crochet (ch.sc)

Insert the hook into the stitch, yarn over hook and draw through a loop (2 loops on hook), yarn over hook and draw through a first loop on hook (2 loops on hook), yarn over hook and draw through 2 loops on hook (1 loop remains on hook)."

ch.sc is the american term, in british english it is chain-double crochet (ch.dc). i use the american term."

Chain 147. Turn.

Row 1: In third chain from hook, start pattern. 1 ch.sc, ch 1, *sk 1 ch,  1 ch.sc,  ch 1* repeat to end.

Row 2-6: Chain 2. 1 ch.sc into the loop formed by first chain, skip ch.sc, ch 1, *1 ch.sc into the loop formed by ch 1, skip ch.sc, ch 1* repeat to end.

And that's it!

Calling All Crafters: 42nd Edition

Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 

A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...



Lady With The Red Rocker's
DIY Soap Packets

AND






Sew Can Do's
Hedgehog Mittens
(there's even a free pattern!)

AND

Maiden D'Shade's
Diaper Tricycle Tutorial
(way cuter than a diaper cake!)



Want a button?

<center><a href="http://allthingsfee.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/5588365611_b3055bb44c_m.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Mondays @ All Things Fee!" /></a></center>

Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!