Doily garland!

Last winter, I helped make decorations for my friends baby shower :)  Her nursery colors were blue & orange, and let me tell you, I found it pretty tricky to get orange decorations at the store.  So, I bought some white paper doilies and some orange Rit dye and made my own.  I poured enough of the dye in the bottom of my pot (that I use only for craft projects) and added water to it, so it was probably about a 50:50 solution.

 

Mixed that all together, then added each doily individually into the mixture, making sure they were covered with the dye on both sides, and were not touching each other.  (I could dye about 3 at a time in my container) 

 

GLOVES came in handy :)  Though I do believe I still had an orange finger in the end.

 

Each doily was probably only in the dye about 5-10 seconds, then I took them out and set them on a stack of old rags so they could air dry.

 

Once they were dry, I cut a long piece of kite string and strung the doilies onto it.  After the spacing looked OK, I added scotch tape to the back of the doily (over the string) to keep it all in place.

 

DIY Orange doily garland!

 

It was so much fun to make :)

 

Didn't get a picture of them hanging on the wall though, oh well.

cloth towel "wet bin"

Hubby & I have been using cloth "paper towels" lately and cloth napkins.  To avoid having to run to the laundry bin after each meal, we now have a wet bin under our kitchen sink.  I empty this out whenever I do laundry, or if it gets full.

 

I used a plastic coffee container, and Mod Podge to add a strip of fabric for a little more decorative look, and also to easily identify the bin.

Wood floors! (living room)

Well summer is almost over for me, and it has been very busy!  Hubby & I did lots of home improvements and DIY projects that I can't wait to share with you all now that they're done, so stay tuned :)  (I'll hopefully be able to post a few updates before classes start)

Our largest project was installing hardwood floor in our house.  One of the rooms to get "made over" was our living room.  The carpet was so dirty/gross, it was well overdue for a change.

BEFORE

Changes made to living room:

Floor: carpet to hardwood

Ceiling fan: new unit, now with a light (major difference at night!)

Painted walls

Curtains

Window valance

Throw pillows

AFTER

Only thing I'd still like to change... would be to remove the spindles on our half wall on the left side of the room.  Possibly changing it to a larger platform and have a more modern pillar or something on one side?  Still looking into that, but it wouldn't be until next summer anyways (if at all).