THE best body scrub I hardly bought...

That's right. I have news. The best body scrub I hardly bought is the 3/4 cup of white sugar I polished my face and entire body with in the shower after reading the tip in Carmidy's book Crazy Busy Beautiful. Carmindy appears on the TV show I made my family promise never to nominate me for (although I could use the $5000 towards a new wardrobe!!!) What Not To Wear. (Oh, P.S. I bought the book at Superstore for 25% off the cover price, I'm just saying)

 

Carmindy's book is filled with easy-peasie beauty tips including my new favorite: using plain white sugar from your pantry as a body scrub. Mix it with your body wash or take a handful and go to town on your legs, it's all good. I especially liked using a tiny bit of it on a facecloth and exfoliating my lips. Honestly, I'm not sure why I was so surprised it worked so well! So listen, I've put a bunch in a airtight tupperware and tossed it in the bathroom closet.

Why I like it so much:

• It doesn't irritate my sensitive skin
• There are no other/added chemicals
• I'll always have it on hand
• It's cheap
• It washes off easily and doesn't leave any gross or sticky residue
• It doesn't turn rancid (like the oversize 3 Minute Miracle I spent way too much money for years ago and ended up making my hands burn - gross!)

All I would suggest is lathering on the moisturizer after you're done - and VOILA - you're done :)

Go here for another part of Carmindy's website I like - Money Saving Tips.

Organize your Jewellery

I spent half the morning organizing my jewellery yesterday. The outcome was very satisfying and now I have not only sorted & categorized what I have (for example: everyday, fancy, real, costume, etc) but now I feel more inclined to wear it because I can find it.

My jewellery box looks something like this...except with a smaller companion jewellery box inside of the larger one. From here.

Other way to display/store jewellery. From here.

   

And as a side note: check out this necklace (and other beautiful jewellery). 

From here. Lovely.

Forget your fridge, put your child's art on the wall!

We were over at a friends place for dinner and while we were finishing up the sushi (yum) the kiddies were into the Pipsqueaks (Crayola's cute -totally- washable markers for little hands)... when low and behold...VoilA!

One of the kiddies ran up to his mommy with his masterpiece in hand. A series of blue, green and grey scribbles on a white plain old piece of computer paper. Honestly, there was something totally captivating about his scribbles that words can't describe. We looked at each other and said, almost at the same time, that's nice enough to go on the wall - it just needs to be about 20x bigger!

Well, in my employment travels over the last 2 years (I took to part time after our daughter was born in seek of personal balance) I worked at a photo restoration shop. One of the services they offered was printing on canvas. So there you go. You can get just about anything printed to almost any size on canvas, have the canvas stretched and mounted on a frame > ready to hang on your wall. GENIUS. Seriously. If When I win the lottery my first purchase will be a big beautiful plotter (really really big printer) and I swear I'm going to set up shop in my house. Until then, if this at all interests you let me know, I can give you a hand as to where to get your kid's artwork turned into a wall sized canvas.

Our children are a part of our families and our homes are their homes too. If they happen to be into scribbling here and there and something catches your eye, save yourself about $7500 and get a big a$$ canvas print made of their painting/drawing/scribble and hang it on your wall. I think it boosts their self confidence at the same time. Win win.

I let my daughter go to town on a canvas I had lying around the house when she was about 2 years old. It hangs at our back door and I see it through the window every time I come home and stick the key in the lock. I love it. It just says Welcome Home Mommy every time.

One of our daughter's masterpieces that hangs by our backdoor.

More art display ideas:

I LOVE this.

If you have a child who produces art like it's going out of style, 

something like this may be right up your alley! 

Side note: Ikea, when are you coming to Wpg? Seriously.

Complete with photos of the artists. From somewhere in here.

A series of scribbles.

Collage style. cute right? 

112 little pieces or art in one big frame. 

More about freezer paper from Make It and Love It

I've never heard of freezer paper until I came across ways to use it to stencil clothing on Make It and Love It.  Haven't been shopping for it yet but am thinking Superstore or Walmart would be on the top of my list as to where to find it, maybe Bulk Barn as well?

Anyways, here's another photo of a freezer stenciled tee. Cute, non? Cheap and Do-able. Right up my alley.

Time for Time...

I work up and I said omg. don't tell me it's We Can Do It Wednesday b/c I'm tired and I don't want to do anything! Fiddle-sticks. The house seems to be in shambles and I'm tired and not motivated. I'm not going to lie. I'm going to start by tidying our bedroom (didn't sleep well, maybe b/c there's too much stuff piled around my sleeping head) - and then this is what I'm going to do - Whatever I Want To Do that I don't make time to do. This would be getting out my sketchbook, blowing the dust off of it and doing a little drawing.

My real ambition in life is to have a studio in my house and make art. Sounds like a pipe dream but there's a portion of my future lotto winnings already allocated to this venture. But what's stopping me from making some art right now? Well, despite the obvious (I don't think they are excuses, and I do all at the same time), I think it's me who's stopping me from making some more art.

So here's your  challenge. Do something for yourself this week. Whatever it is, it should be something that makes you feel good and you like to do that's all about you. Have fun!

Angel Wing Chair Covers

These are the most poetic "chair covers" I've ever seen. Seriously. If this interests you go to Stephanie's blog to read her story. P.S. She was on Oprah.

Photo from here.

Reuse plastic-ish produce bags (your friends will think you're a genius)...

Here's a cute & environmentally friendly project where you can reuse plastic mesh bags from the produce section. More ideas here.

I want a tepee for my living room.

Tepee, Tipi, Teepee. However you spell it, it's all the same. Me wants one.

From here.

Everything Needs a Home, even that stoopid box of electrical wires that collects dust.

Welcome to the 2nd week of We Can Do It Wednesdays!

If you happen to recall, last week I sorted through my clothes using the "friend analogy" - Best Friends, Acquaintances, Distant Pals & Enemies. One reader wrote in and commented on an outfit that made her fee lousy, uncomfortable and outdated. My thoughts are this, if clothes are supposed to be like friends, is there any use to having a "friend" who makes you feel lousy, uncomfortable or outdated? Hells no! Yes, we have all spent too much money on clothes that suck aren't working for us anymore (or in my case never have)...why invest anymore time, energy or guilt holding on to them? Time to introduce those "friends" to the curb - bye byes. As for myself, I'm happy to report that I did have luck purging, mending the "to do" pile and making room for great finds to come. Do I have some items that I am still holding onto (for probably the wrong reasons?), yes. Oh well, I'll deal with those next time, along with all of my accessories - but I'm shelving that idea for now b/c I need to mix it up or I'll get bored!


This week my intentions were to tidy up and to replace a dinky, crammed bookshelf in my daughters room with the nice big white one that's been sitting in our garage since last summer. Confession 1: I didn't think of using this nice bookcase until last week, 2: I mentioned it to my husband who shrugged it off so I decided not to wait for his help to move it (it's not heavy, don't worry) 3: we're on a budget and if there's one thing I learned from Nate Berkus (think Oprah - but now he has his own show, can I just say that it pays to be friends with Oprah?) is that yes you can shop around your house for "new" things (aka, take a look around before your go out shopping, you may just have something worth moving to another room in your house). Oh, and confession 4: I'm tired of having toys w/ no home tossed around our house like debris after a tornado in a trailer park. It's exhausting and it stresses out my husband to the point where I feel like he wants me to start throwing out toys...then we get our underwear in knots into a big "disagreement" where I usually pout and blame him for not moving the big white bookcase into her room. 


BAH! Ok. Relax...so I brought in the bookcase from the garage, organized the toys, books, etc. and started feeling a little snappy about the whole thing. Then I moved the dinky bookshelf into the open hall closet (for our daughters craft things so she can get them herself instead of asking one of us every 5 mins (independence, learning to put things where they belong, etc...these are good lessons for her, right?). Problem, where does the vacuum go now (from the hall closet)...to the linen closet? Obviously. Problem. It's too tall for the linen closet and there's too much crap stuff in there now. Edit. Bye byes double bed sheets (we have 1 king and 1 single) and bye byes electronics (you need a new home). Take out 2 shelves, vacuum fits, linen is edited to what we actually use & need and snappity snap snap in a circle. I'm a genius. 


As for the electronics. I'm ashamed to say we have a WII that my hubby won at a social, plus a WII Fit, other WII games, & Rock Band (with guitar and drum set). Why am I ashamed? Because WII hardly play it. Scratch that, WII NEVER play it. I forget we even have it until I'm cleaning out the linen closet and stumble on stuff that's not linen but taking up too much room. [Insert new attitude here]: WII fit now fits under the TV consul and the WII bits + games fit into a basket behind the TV itself. Voila. Now WII just have to hook it up and play it. I'm thinking tonight is as good a night as any. We'll see how it goes.


This post looks more like a diary entry than many of my other posts. Let's distill what I've learned this Wednesday.


1. I don't have to wait for my husband to do things around the house that I can do myself and then pout and stomp around and blame him for doing what I probably should have done in the first place (NOTE: this is a reoccurring lesson for me but the outcome of having done something feels good and I just hope to do it sooner, for myself, the next time around, but he doesn't need to know this).
2. If something in my house doesn't have a home it lies around like a pile of dog crap "someone" hasn't cleaned up in our front yard (have I ever mentioned that I will NEVER buy a house w/ a fire hydrant/light post/tree on the blvd again, ever?), someone's gonna step on it and get pissed off. EVERYTHING NEEDS A HOME
3. If I don't see something in my house on a daily basis I'm not going to use it and it's probably taking up precious space (our house is 836 sq.ft. and since our basement isn't finished we don't use it). “HAVE NOTHING IN YOUR HOUSE THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW TO BE USEFUL OR BEAUTIFUL." WILLIAM MORRIS (Was this guy straight? Just wondering)
4. I have to QUIT BUYING DOUBLES of shit things I already have, especially just because it's on sale (this includes clothes). I'm better off saving my money to get something I really want, like an ottoman storage unit thing for the living room, that or a vacation to Cuba, I'm just saying.


Now that I'm exhausted it's time for me to take a break and put my feet up. Part of the reason I've started this WCDIW kick is that we're expecting our 2nd child on July 4th (!) Since I don't think we'll be buying a bigger house between now and then (unless my Lotto ticket pays off big time) I think we have to increase the size of our house by decreasing the contents of our house. That and if a 3rd bedroom would suddenly appear of of thin air I'd be very grateful (doesn't hurt to dream, right?)...

Good luck and remember: We Can Do It. If we don't, hells knows who will. 

P.S. I love this!

Metallic accessories are a can of spray paint and a trip to the thrift store away. From here.

www.PSimadethis.com

Is it summer yet?

If you're like me and live in a place where summer is short but sweet, you may be wishing for green leaves, black dirt and a warm breeze right about now instead of dirty snow, winter boots and frost bite.

Don't get me wrong, I do like winter and there's nothing like a white Christmas...but...yawn, I'm ready for flip flops and flowers.

Here are a few pick me up photos I found in my computer archive of beautiful yards. California may be at risk of breaking off into the North Pacific, but between now and then thay've definitely got some perks that have got me seeing green...

Excerpts from Garden Design Magazine Sept/Oct 2005

Turn your old plastic bags into recycled grocery totes...

Ok. These are brilliant...

From the post it seems there may be some trial and error involved but would it not be so gratifying to turn all the plastic bags shoved under your (ok, my) kitchen sink into something useful and beautiful?

I can't wait to try it... the possibilities are endless (library bag, swimming bag, karate bag, personalized gift bag).

From here.

http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-recycled-grocery-totes.html

Happy 2011!

hope you had a GREAT holiday season! we had tons of fun spending time with family & friends.

now there's the fun and excitement of a brand spanking new year. what to do, what to do?! resolution/no resolution? i say no resolution = no guilt later! with that being said, there's nothing wrong with a little good intentions here and there ;)  my good intention is to be organized and clutter free. wanna join me?

do i have a master plan yet? no, but i'm going to start anyways. so for now, the mantra is we can do it, if not everyday than at least on wednesdays!

Wednesday January 5, 2011 - Clothes Purging! i'll be going through ALL my clothes. the dump factor - everything gets dumped on the bed. then i go through everything and [try] to be ruthless. the old keep, toss, donate rules you see on every organization show on tv is getting old for me. not that it doesn't work but it bores me. so here's looking at clothes purging from a different from sideroad.com

Closet Organizing: How to Purge

If you dread going into your closet, now is a great time to clean it out and switch your wardrobe for the upcoming season! During the switch, do yourself a favor and purge as you go.

There are four types of clothes in your closet:

Best Friends - Clothes you love, that you wear most often.

Acquaintances - Clothes that you like, that fit you and that you wear from time to time and are generally happy with.

Distant Pals - These are the rarely worn essentials that serve a special purpose, such as cocktail dresses, formalwear and holiday fancies. You don't wear them all the time, but when you need them, you really need them.

Enemies - Enemies are clothes that don't go with anything else in your wardrobe, don't fit anymore, are a bad color for you, or make you feel unattractive when you wear them. We all have a few enemies in our closets. Get rid of 'em!

Questions to ask yourself when deciding what category your clothes fall into:

• When did I wear this last?
• Does it still fit?
• Is it still in style?
• Does it need to be repaired or altered, and will I have the work done?
• Does this look good on me?
• Do I love how I feel when I wear it?

The secret to closet success, is that you must tell yourself the absolute truth when asking those questions! You will create a lot more usable space in your closet and you won't even miss those clothes you got rid of.

Whether you realize it or not, your closet holds many items that someone else in the world would really love and appreciate. Once you've weeded out those pieces that are no longer serving you, consider donating your old clothes to a homeless shelter, Goodwill, or another charity where they will be given or sold to those who need them. It's a win-win!

ok. off to the races, if you're joining me good luck to us! if not, stay tuned for more fun to come!