Utensil Holder Swap

I was unhappy with my plastic Utensil holder in the kitchen.  It was way too small to hold everything, would tip over and the black plastic looked cheap.  So I moved it to the bathroom and it now holds my hair bushes and hand mirror and works great!

I keep it right inside the door under the cupboard.  It's so easy to toss them in there so they don't sit out on the counter all day like they used to!

I used one of my white ceramic planters from Ikea to serve as my new utensil holder.  It's large enough to hold everything, doesn't tip over, and the shiny white ceramic looks good enough to set out on the counter!

DIY Earring Holder

 This DIY Earring holder works great for keeping all of my earrings that aren't studs. I love how it displays them so I remember what I have and don't just wear silver hoops with everything!

I started with a hallow frame.  This one game inside of a picture frame I used for my Scrabble art, sort of like a mat, so I had it lying around.  I measured my earrings so I had the spacing correct and marked where I wanted the stings to go.  I planned it so shorter earrings would go on top and longer earrings on the bottom.

I placed strings across the back side and held them tight to create tension while securing with hot glue.  I used some thin, grey, twine-like string that I already had.

 The finished product sets on my dresser and  leans against the wall  so the earrings can hang.

DIY Bedroom Rug

When I couldn't find a rug to match my bedroom, I decided to paint one after seeing it done on-line.  My duvet cover is very textured, so I wanted something more flat, with a design, but not a busy design that would compete with the duvet.  I decided on thick stripes and used some leftover grey paint from the walls.  It dried a little darker than the walls which I love, as it matches without matching exactly.

 I started with an inexpensive rug from Ikea which is no longer sold (sad because I wanted to make another rug for my living room).  I taped off the stripes using painters tape. I started small incase I needed to change them, then taped across the entire rug.

Although the stripes ended up being even, the tape doesn't appear that way since I placed the tape on either the inside or outside of my line so the tape would lay completely on the areas that would remain white, leaving the entire area for the grey stripe exposed (the larger stripes below).

I applied three coats of paint with a small roller which was almost a quart of paint. I used placed plastic garbage bags underneath so if paint soaked through it wouldn't get on my floor.  After the paint dried, I removed the tape and sprayed the entire rug with scotch-guard to protect the white areas from getting dirty.

Here is the finished product! I love how it completes the room:

Before                                              After

Pasta Gift Basket

My Mom LOVES pasta, so I thought she would enjoy a pasta themed gift basket for her birthday!  I decided to use all Giada De Laurentiis for Target items, since the products seemed interesting and the colors in the packaging would make for a cute basket!

Here's what I included:

Giada Items:

Organic Fusilli Col Buco Pasta

Organic Orzo Pasta

Herb Focaccia Bread Mix

Herb and Lemon Dipping Oil

Raspberry Vinagrette

Pepper & Eggplant Tomato Spread

Creamy Tomato Pasta Sauce

Marsala Simmer Sauce

Other items:

Sparkling Mineral Water

White Wine

Red Wine

Napkins

Paper Straws

Toblerone Bar

Ferrero Rocher Chocolates

All of the items except the wine were purchased at Target. I put it all together in a white beverage tub (also from Target), which was large enough and also something I knew my Mom would use.  The 'CHEERS' banner was made using my Cricut and scraps of paper.