A Blingy Wall

All my jewelry lived in a box. All tangled together. It was sad. I decided to do something about it, and I had a cork board hanging out unused. So...

I traced a design, using a tissue box to help me with the right angles.

Filled it in with my favorite color of acrylic paint.

Laa laa laa...

Gave it a second coat for extra boldness.

Ooh la la!

It took an hour of tracing and painting, then I gave it about three hours to dry before I pinned up my things. I'm glad to have easy access and fewer tangled chains.

Pinterest Experiment 1: DIY liquid hand soap

My mom and I are always being inspired by all of the neat "life hacks" that we see on Pinterest, so we are making an effort to give one an honest try every two weeks!

[Insert your standard college-student-on-a-budget spiel here.]

So when I saw this idea on Pinterest to make a ton of hand soap for a lot less than one can buy it, I was stoked! Furthermore, I am unbearably finicky when it comes to choosing soap. I can never find a scent I like in liquid soap, but there are tons of bar soaps that I enjoy.

Because I haven't done this before, I wanted to try to make 1/4 the volume that the original pinner had made so that I wouldn't waste too much if the experiment went horribly awry.

I started by gathering my ingredients and supplies.

Start by grating the chee- uh, soap. This step was very enjoyable, as my hands smelled delightfully pepperminty afterward.

Combine the water, soap shavings, and glycerin in your pot.

Stir on low/medium for a few minutes until everything dissolves together. Then wait for it to cool.

During this time, I cleaned up my kitchen and made a label for my container.

Pour the cooled soap into a holding container. 

Bonus points if you reuse a container that you would have otherwise tossed out or recycled.

Done!

I found that this soap is pretty runny - like, I have to exercise caution when pumping it out of my dispenser or else it'll shoot all over the counter. However, I also noticed that it had thickened a little after several hours, so perhaps it will continue to thicken as time goes on.

This soap leaves my hands feeling clean and smelling minty! I give this project a B for the runniness; if you can think of a way to thicken it more easily, leave me a comment.

Gettin' Jolly: Holiday Corner

Ken and I decided that we wanted this holiday season to be our first together alone as a couple. That means that neither of us will be traveling to see our parents - and that we'll be creating new traditions of our own.

For me, this is both scary and exciting. So to help myself along, I'll be showing off on Busy Beaver.

Last year I remember preparing for our travels and panicking to get everything ready. To avoid the stress this year, I decided to start very early. And now, a solid 13 days in advance, our in-home decorating is all done!

Because we live in a pretty small apartment, we have limited space for our tree. Fortunately, my mom gave me a little tree last year that came with lights already on it. I put on a second string of lights (Beaver orange!) and loaded ALL of our ornaments on it. It looks to be bursting at the seams.

I also set out a vase of poinsettias, hung the stockings and completed all of my gift shopping and wrapping. Ken did, too; now we both have a bunch of pretty gifts to ponder for a couple of weeks.

I'll admit, I felt homesick when I turned on some of my favorite holiday music and decorated the tree alone this year. Most of my ornaments are handmade by my mom. As I placed each on the tree, I thought about how much love went into the making of this scene ... and into each of the Christmases I've spent with my family until now. I really hope that, should I have children someday, I can give them an equally fun holiday season.

This little scene is just the beginning of my holiday marathon. I have a lot more that I am excited to do in the coming weeks!

Pushpin & Yarn Tree

As my apartment goes, one of my priorities is to make sure that everything is well-decorated and interesting. But because I like my space to reflect its inhabitants, this is a long process. I've been here a year and I'm nowhere near done!

But today I checked a project off my to-do list that has been there for about a year: imitate this cool piece of art.

(Click image for original post)

My bathroom has a lot of trees, birds, and cool colors - so I decided to make a small version of this tree in there.

My weapons.

My land to be conquered.

Watch my tree grow!

Done!

I love how this fills up the space - and how the reflection looks in the mirror!

Plus, now some of my vinyl birds have a place to nest. :)

His & Hers Fish Paintings

I've been looking for more art to fill my office wall, and when I saw this idea on Pinterest, I thought it would be great to make my own!

I'd link you to the original DIY, but unfortunately I couldn't find a working link. Here is OP's blog.

The pin said to use Elmer's Glue or Puff Paint, but I wanted some extra dimension so I used hot glue. I also decided to use two of our favorite colors on each painting instead of one.

Here is what I made! I seem to have started a fish motif in my apartment, and I wanted to continue that with this project.

For Kenny, a narwhal in purple and blue. 

And for myself, a koi in red and orange.

I really love how these turned out! What do you think?

A Winter Home

It seems like just yesterday that I painted up my little polka-dot outdoor tables and planted my springtime garden.

Since then, I've obtained new plants, some have grown, and some seasonal ones have already expired.

And now fall is in the air, and it brings with it... brrrrr!

So I needed to find a space where I could house my plants during the chilly months. The main challenge was, where? I have two windows in my apartment, and one of them has been recently occupied by music gear. The other window has the couch in front ... but ... maybe I could squeeze eight inches out of the space for a shelf?

YES!!!

I looked everywhere but couldn't find a thin, short, inexpensive shelf. So I went with Plan B: a slab of laminate flooring and cinder blocks.

At this point I want to take a moment to recognize how awesome Habitat for Humanity ReStore is. I was able to get materials for a functional shelf at a very College Kid Budget-friendly price. Plus the volunteers were very helpful and my money is going to a good cause. Awesome all-around.

Plus, check out this cool strawberry pot thing I found there! I'm excited to fill it with a new plant next spring.

I feel that the end result is nice-looking and functional. My plants will get light and stay warm through the winter. Score!

As you can see, I've named some of my plants, but not all of them. I'd like your help in naming the rest.

From top to bottom we have: Chloe the Dieffenbachia, Helen the Chocolate Mint, an unnamed ornamental flower guy, Remy the Plant Mom Gave Me But I'm Not Sure What (help here, Mom?) an unnamed Cayenne Pepper guy, and an unnamed Oregano guy.

Help me fill in the blanks, please! :)

My Eco-Easy Wall Art

This idea has been floating around on my Arts & Crafts board for quite a long time, but I've finally completed it!

Here is the original:

And here's what I came up with!

I chose light mint for my all-over color and added in bursts of yellow and purple.

It took a LONG time to collect all of the toilet paper rolls - and my awesome mom contributed MANY - but I think it looks great!

Plus, it has filled a big visual void on my wall. Yay!

Prepared For Anything

Today I got a surprise from my mom in the mail.

Ta-da! Toolbox!

I feel that having a box full of tools is one of many steps to being a Responsible Young Adult. But up until this point, I had been keeping all my tools in a shoe box.

But now I have all kinds of space for Command hooks and nails...

...and extension cords and hammers!

I'm all kinds of jazzed about what I can put in there next. Maybe a set of wrenches? Some screwdrivers? A level?

Whatever it is, now it has a home! YAY!

Thank you so much for the wonderful surprise, Mom!

Bedroom/Den Facelift

Kenny and I are rock fans. We both love to play music; in high school we and some of our friends were in a band together; and our collection of concert tees is pretty admirable.

But, den-less as we are in our 1 bedroom apartment, we don't exactly have a solid place to jam. But we do have a quite spacious bedroom! So that's where we've stuffed all of our music gear.

Stuffed being the operative word - all of our guitars, a keyboard, drum sticks, mic stands, posters, flags, and so on have landed there without much care or thought. So the walls are pretty empty and the gear looks cluttered. Sigh.

The College Kid Budget usually doesn't have much room for more rock posters. But ... I do have a ton of concert tees hidden in my closet that I don't wear anymore...

Hmm, I wonder what I could do with that? Hang them on the walls in shadowboxes? That looks cool!

Yikes, shadowboxes are at least $10 apiece and I have a dozen shirts! But wait, this looks even cooler...

Command hooks for $18, wooden dowels for $4.40. That comes to... less than a couple of posters at a show, at least. 

I'll take it!

BAM.

This is so awesome. A whole wall's worth of decoration - with shirts that I own and love but no longer wear.
And the process of hanging them was really easy - I imagine that hanging them in shadow boxes would have been much more frustrating.

The music corner was easy to set up, too - once I figured out how to make it functional.
With the amps by the outlets and the microphones in place, it will be much easier to jam on a whim.

I love how this space is shaping up, but I feel like it still isn't complete.

Hmm... what will make this feel even better? Maybe a few rugs, new curtains, some fun lighting?

Tell me what you think in the comments!