Showing posts with label To Do List. Show all posts
Showing posts with label To Do List. Show all posts

Monday, June 11, 2012

Summer Time

Wow.  I can't believe it has been over a month since I last wrote.  I'm happy to say that my disappearance has been for good reasons.  Right after my Spring break from work I was asked to fill in as a long term substitute teacher and I happily jumped at the opportunity to teach.  There were no plans for me to work with so I've been figuring it out as I go and I've love every second of it.

Now that school is winding down and my summer job begins I am hoping to be back on here a lot more.  I'm even hoping to throw a few teaching-related posts in here to mix things up.

Since I made a list last summer (and only accomplished half of the items on that list) of things I wanted to do over my time off, I figured I'd make a new list of things I'd like to accomplish in the next three months.

So here we go:

  • Go to a concert with the girls & one with J (already planned for these, LMFAO at the end of June and fun. in August....although I may buy Jason Mraz tickets if I have money around that time)
  • Go strawberry picking with mom then maybe learn how to make my own jam and jar some
  • Organize my recipe binders and lesson plans binders
  • Visit D in Boston
  • Make plans to visit my brother in Colorado in the Fall to see a CU game
  • Go fishing with J
  • Go camping/hiking
  • Go kayaking at a different location than our trip last summer
  • Finish knitting my remaining projects
  • Get picture frames for our Italy pictures
  • Reading some educational books
  • Read at least 5 fun books this summer
  • Go to the zoo
  • Get back in running shape
I'm sure I will think of more things to add to this list, but hopefully I will accomplish the things above this summer and use my summer vacation to its fullest extent!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

DIY: Wall Art Decor


As I’ve said before, J and I decided it would be a pain to paint our apartment walls only to have to possibly paint them back to a boring white color when we move.  I was browsing through pinterest.com pages when I found this awesome, easy way to add a pop of color to the room.

This weekend I bought all of the supplies:
·      a 24x36 canvas (for only $10 with the store’s sale and a 20% off coupon!)
·      a 16x20 canvas (couldn’t pass up a good deal!)
·      paint (for the larger canvas: for the smaller canvas:)
·      three small sponge brushes and one large sponge brush
·      I couldn’t find ¼” painters tape so I bought ¼” quilter’s tape and ¾” electrical tape.

I promise this project is minimally messy and pretty quick.  If you want to follow thenewdomestic.com’s method then you will first need to create a mock version of your painting.  Instead of doing this I just haphazardly put tape down on my canvas.  (*Note: If you decide to use electrical tape make sure to really press it down into the canvas as it will peel up a little if you don’t and you will not end up with totally clean lines.)

I also chose not to pre-decide where I wanted each color to go.  I just knew that with the larger canvas I wanted red to be the main color and on the smaller canvas dark blue would be more present.  I used a Tupperware containers and a lid as a palette and worked on the smaller canvas first. 



Like I said before I did not plan out which sections would be what color.  As I went I would just think that an area looked like it was too much dark blue and needed a splash of light blue.  I did the same with my larger canvas, but I also knew that the color I wanted the least of was the dark brown because I didn’t want the painting to make the room look dark.   I painted 2-3 coats of each color because some needed the extra layer to look the way I wanted it to be.


My paint directed that I wait 1 hour between layers of paint, but to be honest it was pretty dry after 10 minutes so I just went on to the next layers when it was dry to touch.  I waited about 5-10 minutes after the last layer before peeling off the strips of tape.  Make sure to pull the tape in order (some of mine overlapped) otherwise you could ruin some of your straight lines if your paint is not totally dry!



I let both canvases dry overnight before attempting to hang them (just so I wouldn’t accidentally get paint on the wall.  The paint brand that I purchased says it takes 21 days for the paint to cure so J and I decided that we would wait to hang up the canvas in the bathroom until then because the moisture from showering might cause it not to cure completely or make the paint run.  (That doesn’t mean I can’t take a picture to show you what it would look like!)  We did decide, however, that the large canvas could go up in the living/dining room without waiting for the paint to cure.


The nice things about the canvases that I purchased is that they are light and instead of hammering nails into the apartment walls, we just used thumbtacks to hold them up instead of possibly hammering nails into wiring in the walls.





Doesn't it add such a great punch of color to both rooms!?  What home decor have you created for a fraction of what it would've cost to purchase that item in a store?

Monday, January 30, 2012

Weekend Arts & Crafts

So this weekend was spent recuperating from the aforementioned never ending week.  Since J unfortunately had to work the whole weekend I thought I'd get some chores done.  Finishing the laundry was the furthest I got before boredom completely took over.

Image from thenewdomestic.com
J and I have been trying to save money grocery shopping, so we shop the circular, only buying certain things when they are on sale (i.e. Chobani yogurt, certain fruits, etc).  I grabbed our stack of shops' circulars and looked for the Shoprite one to start circling what we should get for the week, only to come across one for A.C. Moore first.  Like I talked about in my last post, the Wall Art Project from the New Domestic is a project I'd like to complete, but I was waiting until my next paycheck to purchase supplies.  Well, the supplies were on sale at A.C.Moore and canvases were half off so I decided to go ahead and get started on this project.



I may have gone overboard with the supplies I purchased (from Michaels as well), but I spent the rest of the weekend happily crafting and having a nice relaxing weekend.  I can't tell you how ecstatic I am with the results.  The two pieces of wall art I ultimately ended up making cost me under $30 and I used the remaining paint to create a couple other items for the apartment which were about $3-7 to make each.  Not too bad!




Later in the week I'll post a How-To on creating the wall art and containers that I made over the weekend.  Right now I've got to get some things done that I put off all weekend and then head to work!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

No More Bedsheets as Curtains


So now that J and I are finished traveling until at least April we have time to work on making the apartment look nice and work on projects we’ve decided sound like fun.  When we got back from Italy we finally received the remaining part of our couch (we had 2 out of 3 pieces), only it was not delivered on the day we were promised, instead a whole week later.  Our experience with the store and staff in which we bought our couch from was frustrating and if we weren’t both in love with the couch we would seriously consider returning it.
I forgot to put away the iron before taking this!
On a positive note, having our couch finally has allowed us to determine what color scheme we want the room to be.  We won’t be painting the walls of our apartment because it is a hassle since we don’t know what will happen in the next year and whether we will renew our lease or not (if I get a teaching position in another area we would consider moving).  I wanted something that would make the room pop! against  the plain off-white walls.  Originally I wanted to go for a chocolate brown, cream, and coral color scheme, but it has proven really difficult to find décor that not only contains these colors but also has a pattern I like. 

I used the Sherwin-Williams Color visualizer to create this mock room, pretty cool tool!
Frustrated I gave up that search and decided that a better route to go was chocolate brown, tan/cream, and red.  We already have placemats that are those colors that I like and finding curtains to go with the room was so ridiculously easy.  The curtains still need a little work as they are too long for the window, but I’m working on hemming them.


The tabs on the ends of the curtain rod are actually for daytime use, when you can pull the curtains together and tie them with the pieces of fabric.

Currently I’m in the search for additional pillows for our couch.  I thought about making them myself and who knows, maybe I will still make one or two, but for the time being I found some at Target I may purchase.






Also, I found this idea for wall art on pinterest.  J agreed to help me try to make one for our living room/dining room.  When I get my next paycheck the supplies for this project will be the first thing I purchase.



We also ordered pictures from our trip.  I ordered seven 12x18 poster prints from Snapfish (I had a great coupon) so we could play around with six of them and the seventh is going in a different spot.  I taped them all to the wall temporarily so we could see which ones we liked best (I haven’t purchased frames yet), but now I kind of like the idea of all six images on the wall.  What do you think?  Too much?


Now that I finally know the color scheme, but I have no money to spend I feel like I'm constantly seeing things I'd love to try out in the apartment.  It may be a while before the entire room is finished, but I'll be sure to share our improvements with you along the way.

Friday, December 30, 2011

New Years Resolutions

I know every year most people make New Years Resolutions.  Even if they don't write them down, I think everyone makes some sort of mental list they'd like to accomplish.

This year I decided to make a list of projects I'd like to accomplish (although I'll probably be making a mental list of other resolutions as well!).

New Years To Do List
  1. Get Our Grocery Bil Down.  While I don't think ours is outrageous and we've been shopping sales better, I'd still like to get our bill down by $10-$15.
  2. Decorate Our Apartment Walls.  I'm waiting on this especially because I'd like to use some of our trip pictures to decorate.
  3. Hide a Bookcase.   I love this idea and want to do it to our small bookcase that houes books, games, and water bottles.  I would love to do this with the two large bookcases and mirror in the middle, but we don't really need to spend the money to buy these things.
  4. Curtains.  Our current set up is quite the eyesore with sheets for curtains!!  I would like to do something like this or this (the 3rd picture down).  In our bedroom I'm not sure what I'd like to do yet.  We only have one small window and I don't want to overdo anything with the window.
  5. Pillows.  Our new couch arrived today! Well 2/3rds of it anyway.  The couch is a solid chocolate brown and I'd like to make a couple of throw pillows to help the couch pop and add some color to the room.  I think I'm going to go for a Chocolate brown, beige, and coral color scheme.
  6. Entryway Table.  J and I have both been complaining about not having something right near the door to throw our keys in and our shoes under (because I keep tripping over the few pairs that get left out, the rest are on a shoe rack in our closet).  
  7. Porch Furniture.  We have a small porch at our apartment and I'd like to get some use out of it because we barely used (mostly because of the lack of furniture to sit on).  I will be searching for cheap but nice porch furniture.
  8. Have a dinner party. J and I have both been waiting to have our friends over for a housewarming party since our place still doesn't look the way we want it to.  However, the couch finally arriving definitely helps because it instantly adds way more seating then we had before.
  9. Organization. Currently there are two places I'm dying to fix.  Our one closet has become a dumping ground for sports equipment, items in boxes that we don't need out and everything else under the sun.  It looks terrible.  I'd really like to figure out a way to organize it.  The other spot is the table in front of our couch.  By the end of the week every week it is completely covered in papers, keys, controllers, etc.  Let the reading of blogs like this for ideas begin!
  10. Canning/Freezing.  I'd really like to learn how to can things this year and freeze foods so that we have fresh food stored instead of having to buy frozen dinners/vegetables that are usually filled with fillers I can't even .  First though I need to decide whether there are enough foods that I'd want canned.  Also, I want to know how long I can freeze foods before they expire.  I'd like for J and I to waste less food and be able to eat a little healthier.
Have you made resolutions for the new year yet?