How to Level Furniture Overlapping a Rug

 We recently purchased a larger area rug for our living room. I love that it fills up more of the space and defines the sitting area, but most of our furniture now sits half-on/half-off the rug. Since the rug is over 1" thick it created a real issue ( think of red wine on an unbalanced end table!)

After failed attempts to re-arrange the furniture, I turned to these felt furniture pads to extend legs that fell outside of the rug.  I had purchased a huge package of them at Costco when we changed to dark floors to avoid scratches.

I love using the felt pads because you can keep stacking them to get the height needed.  In my case, every foot outside the rug needed two pads.

Since our floors and dark and the pads were light, I colored them with black permanent marker so they wouldn't show.

Easy Grilled Pizza Night

This is easily one of my favorite summer meals, because it's so fun, easy, and tasty! 

It's our go-to for lazy Friday nights, weeks full or work travel, or even entertaining. 

The menu is simple: wine, spinach artichoke dip, and take and bake pizza!

Since we eat almost every meal on the deck in the summer, I keep a tray in the kitchen to carry everything outside in one trip.  It makes it easy to carry everything back in too!

 

Step one: Open the wine. Then I put on some music, snuggle into the deck pillows and let my husband take over the grilling!

Protocolo is my favorite type of wine to have with grilled pizza, so I stock-up during the summer since we have this meal a lot!  

For an appetizer, we bake one of my spinach artichoke dips on the grill. I make a bunch at a time and freeze them in tin foil pans, so all we have to do is take them out of the freezer in the morning to defrost and they're ready to grill!

We serve the spin dip with Naan bread, which we buy at Costco and heat right on the grill.  

When the naan is ready we cut it with the pizza cutter and serve it off of the pizza plate--why dirty more dishes!

We buy take-and bake pizzas from the grocery store to grill. They always have different kinds to try: buffalo chicken, BBQ chicken, even BLT pizza.

  

The pizzas we buy can be grilled right in the pan they come in, otherwise we use a pizza pan wrapped in tin foil for easy clean-up.

See why I love easy grilled pizza night?!?!?

Cheers to Summer dinners on the deck!

Colorful Deck Flowers Hack

One of my best finds has been Costco's plant and flower baskets.  They're only $20 each which is very reasonable  even compared to plating your own, and the plants are full and overhanging so it doesn't take all summer for them to come in.  Every year I buy two for the front step and two for the deck.

This year I found some really funky plants for the deck, but I thought they lacked a pop of color. I didn't think there was room in the pots to add more flowers, so I thought I'd stick in some fake blooms (I probably couldn't keep real flowers alive anyway!)

I found these on clearance at JoAnn's and they were just the red/orange color that I wanted.  The tag said they were for indoor use only as colors would bleed, so I sprayed them with varnish before sticking them in the plant (proof I'm a better crafter than gardener).

 Before                                       After

The fake flowers are perfect for adding the pop of color that was needed. Now the deck is colorful and ready for a summer of deck sitting!

Painted Countertops: 6 Years Later

We're in the process of remodeling our kitchen and in celebration of the dumpster containing the old cabinets and countertops (shown above) being hauled away this morning, I thought I'd give an up-date on our painted faux granite kitchen countertops.  

It's been almost 6 years since we painted our countertop and many people have e-mailed me inquiring about how the paint job has held-up.  Overall I would say it held-up very well aside from minor scratches that have dulled the shine.  

(keep in mind our countertops are black, so these photos have really been lightened to show the scratches which weren't' that bad in read life).

Ideally we should have put a new seal coat on probably every year which would have helped with the minor scratches. 

There were a few spots where the feet of our small appliances made dents in the paint overtime, as shown here:

In hindsight I'm glad we painted our countertops when we did, as it was inexpensive and allowed us to visually up-date the kitchen until we were ready to remodel and purchase stone countertops.  I would not say it's an alternative to granite, but rather a better option than ugly laminate countertops.  

Pinterest Fail: Washing Legos in the Washing Machine

A few weeks ago I found a huge bin of legos at Goodwill and I had a 25% off coupon--major score! I thought they would be great to own for when kids visit.  Like most things from Goodwill, I immediately thought about how I would wash all of these tiny interlocking bricks before setting out in my home.  I had seen legos washed in mesh bags many times on Pinterest, so for the $4 mesh bag investment I knew how to easily go about this (or so I thought.....)

In order to get rid of all of the loose junk mixed in with the legos, I picked out each lego individually and put them into the mesh bag.  I put the bag in the washing machine on hot, with bleach.  I peeked in half way through the cycle and the legos were floating!!! They completely ripped through the mesh bag and were loose! I figured it couldn't hurt and left it go. 

After the wash was complete, what was left of the legos in bag were completely tied up around the agitator. I had to cut it loose with a scissors.  After getting that out, there was about 6" of loose legos I had to scoop out by hand and put on beach towels to dry.  Some of the larger legos used as a flat base got cracked in the wash also, but are still ok to use.

When its all said and done, I probably spent 3+ hours of my life cleaning my discount Legos.

DIY Reminder Tag

My husband often forgets his lunch, not because I'm a bad cook but by accident.  Sometimes he leaves it in the fridge but I usually find it sitting on top of the cabinet in the entryway.  I've actually learned to look for it so I can put it back in the fridge.

We were joking about how often he forgets it and that he needs something in his face to remind him. Being crafty, I went into my gift wrap stash and grabbed an inexpensive chalkboard tag I had purchased from Michaels and was saving for gifting a bottle of wine. Using chalk I wrote 'LUNCH' across the tag and the reminder tag was done!

We keep it on a 3M hook inside of the cabinet in the entryway and put it on the door knob after dinner if there are leftovers.  Since the chalk is easy to wash off, we can use this to remind ourselves about anything before leaving the house.

Stocking-Up on Stocking Stuffers

It's always fun to give and get stocking stuffers as a little 'something extra' at Christmas time, however if you're not careful they can end-up costing you more than an actual gift!  A lot of retailers send me coupons for free things that make excellent stocking stuffers.  (I'm not sure how I got on these lists, but I'm sure if you snoop around their web-sites you can easily sign-up). Start stocking-up now so you can collect enough goodies for all of your friends and family.  

Here are some great deals that I use for Stocking Stuffers:

$10 off Anything Over $10 Coupons

Find something for $10 and it's free! I get these offers from the following retailers:

 JC Penney-You can easily fiend a piece of clothing here for close to $10. Sometimes it's nice just to get a fresh white tank, something everyone loves but never buys themselves! They also have great deals on jewelry, scarves, hats, mittens, etc.

DSW-Smartwool socks, leg warmers, cute boot socks, or a piece of jewelry

Kohls-Great deals on scarves and jewelry, but you can also find a ton of great kitchen items or wine glasses for under $10. Who doesn't love new dishtowels?!?

Free Stuff

Victoria's Secret-I am always getting coupons for free undies, and the one size fits most lacie's are a great gift option since size doesn't matter!

Bath & Body Works-Free travel size lotion or body wash.  Stock-up early and you can get one of each in the same scent to create a little bundle.

Godiva-Free truffle every month (which you should just eat). However, they give you $10 off the month of your birthday, so if your birthday is close to December Godiva chocolate bars would be appreciated by anyone!

DIY Crafts

It's easy to make multiples of a single craft project to give to everyone on your list.  Some great homemade gifts include wine cork ornaments, tile coasters, wine bottle candles, or Reinbeers!

Hint: Stocking stuffers don't have to be Christmas themed, but if you must, get something basic that will be useful after the holidays and tie it up with a holiday themed ribbon!

Shark/Ocean Cupcakes

I made these circling shark cupcakes for our luau.  They turned out pretty cool and all it took was some blue food coloring!

Start by whipping a can of white frosting using my mixer.  Whipping the frosting makes it more fluffy so its easier to pipe.

Drop a few drops of blue food coloring on the frosting after its been whipped.

Gently fold in the blue coloring, being careful not to mix too much.

Cut the corner of ziploc bag and insert the piping tip.  Scoop the frosting into the bag, adding more drops of blue if you'd like.

As the frosting is piped onto the cupcake, the white and blue mix further creating the ocean colors.

Top with two gummy sharks, or any other sea creature candy!

How to Paint Your Cuttlebug

For a long time the Cuttlebug was the missing link in my craft room, not because I didn't want one, but because it was green and yellow!  I know color shouldn't matter, but everything in my craft room is white so if I got one, it would go in the closet, and if it was in the closet it wouldn't get used.  I was so excited when they came out with a white one so I could buy it!  The base was blue which I thought would match the blue/grey stripe in my craft room, but not so much.  The blue was so bright and obnoxious to me, and since my craft room doubles as my home office I had to change it!!

I decided I would paint the blue base silver to match my Cricut (even though my Cricut is ivory and my Cuttlebug is white!)  I went with this metallic silver from Martha Stewart Crafts that I found at Michael's.

Although spray paint seemed ideal, taping would have been near impossible so I painted by hand, first applying a coat of primer, then the silver paint.

Here's how it looked after one coat--I was starting to have second thoughts! It took 3 coats of paint to get the color how I wanted it.

I didn't paint the inside or the handle to make things easier, and cleaner!  There was a little bit of blue that showed through the gap when closed, so I added a piece of silver washi tape to cover that spot.

Here is the before and after.  I'm happy with how it turned out!

Gift Wrap Stash 101

Fancy grift wrap stations, closets, even rooms are all over Pinterest and organizing sites.  All I have to say to that is good for them, as I think they're more for show than for function.  Besides my wrapping paper rolls which are neatly organized in the closet as seen here, all of my giftwrapping goods fit into one box like this:

That box sits nicely on the shelf, easily accessible but clutter-free like this:

Although it's great to keep a few items on hand to wrap a last minute gift, I don't see the need to devote a ton of storage space in my house to gift wrap.  I find that I usually purchase packaging to match the theme of my gift or the recipient's interests, so I don't often dig into my stash. Therefore, I'm very intentional with what I buy to keep on hand, so storing it doesn't get out of hand! Here are my tips on what to have:

Basic White and Kraft Paper Gift bags-These are great beacuse they can work for any occasion rather than storing wrap for every life event.  Since I do have an entire room of craft supplies, it's easy to decorate them for any occasion, use colored tissue paper, or tie something fun onto the handles.

Colored Favor Bags- These small bags are inexpensive and don't take up much space.  They are easy to embellish and work great for kids gifts, treats, or simple 'just because' gifts that don't need to be wrapped fancy.

Dollar Store Gift Bags-Dollar stores have some of the most fun gift bags, and the best part is that they don't cost more than the gift!  I also keep bags given to me to re-use, but only if they are still in pristine condition.  I know I won't give them if they're beat-up, so why hang onto them?!? If you go through a major life even such as a wedding or new baby, keep the basic bags and give some of the event specific bags to a friend or co-worker.  Why hang onto 30+ wedding bags?

Bubble Mailer Envelopes-These tend to get used more than actual wrap since I like to mail gifts and treats to friends I don't see often!  They are a pain to run out and get when you need them, so I keep them with my gift wrap stash.

Re-useable Gift Bags-At the same price as traditional gift bags, these re-useable gift bags hold-up well and don't get wrinkled and damaged.  The recipient can re-gift them or use them for everyday errands.  They can also tote heavy gifts, like a couple bottles of wine!

Fun Bows and Embellishments- Dollar stores also have a lot of fun bows that help make gifts look attractive and exciting!  I like to have a few on hand to make things special, but since they take up a bit of space I only stock-up on the ones that are really fun.

Decorative Filler-This is available at the dollar store as well.  I like to use it in place of tissue paper in bags and packages.  Not only is it more fun, but it holds up well for storing, wrapping, and re-using and doesn't get wrinkled and grubby like tissue paper.

Small Boxes and Embellishments-I keep all small boxes, bags, and embellishments in a clear ziplock bag so they don't sink to the bottom of my gift wrap box. If you can't find them you won't use them!