Fabulous Fabric

While I was wasting time on Pintrest last night, I came across this picture and kind of fell in love.

I have been looking for a way to organize my fabric by color in a way that I can see it all and easily get to it. Right now, it is in about 5 or 6 plastic totes that are organized by colors. It's not exactly ideal. 

So, last night I googled mini fabric bolts and came across some tutorials on how to make my own bolts. I also came across a site that sold them ready made for about $1 each. I decided to go the DIY way and try using a piece of foam board that I had purchased awhile ago for about $2. I ended up getting 20 fat quarter sized mini fabric bolts from the one sheet. 

Here are the results of my first few pieces of fabric being folded onto the mini fabric bolts.

I'm pretty excited to get all my beautiful fabric on the bolts and get them all on my shelves! 

Another Journey Comes to a Close

I am currently about 2 hours away from completing yet another journey. It seems that his will probably be the last one for awhile.

Anyway, last Thursday I left to go visit my friend Katie and her husband Austen at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. I flew to Vegas with a short stop over in Albuquerque. Katie picked me up and we made an emergency stop to McDonald's for some nutritious lunch/dinner. After about 7 hours of traveling (including my hour and a half of fun waiting at the St. Louis airport), I arrived at Austen and Katie's adorable house. In the seven months they have been there, they have done a lot to make their house very homey.

On Friday, Katie and I hung out and spent some much needed time at the pool trying to beat the crazy Vegas heat. That night, the three of us went downtown and checked out the Vegas strip. It was a little crazy and overwhelming, but definitely something that you should check out if you ever to Vegas for any reason other than hanging out at the strip.

Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed west to California. After a nice 3.5ish hour nap, we made it to one of our destinations. Our first stop was Ikea in Covina which of course was awesome. :) I can't wait to head up to the one in Chicago in the next few weeks to pick up our new furniture. After Ikea, we continued to Oceanside, California.Once there, we headed to the pier for dinner at Ruby's with Katie's friend and her sweet family.

After dinner, we headed back to Katie's friends house on the Camp Pendelton Marine Base where we stayed for the night. Sunday morning, we packed up and went out in search of donuts. After that successful conquest, we headed to the beach at Oceanside. We stayed long enough to stick our toes in the frigid Pacific waters and snap a few pictures and then we headed back to Vegas.

On my final night in Vegas, we had a cookout with Katie and Austen's neighbors. Then, it was time for me to pack up, head to bed, and then wake up to go to the airport.

Once at the airport, my sunscreen was confiscated by TSA and I walked about 5 miles (or so it seemed) to my gate. Got on the plane there and had a pretty uneventful trip over to Phoenix. Waited on the plane there for a bit and then headed homeward. As I write this, I am told that we are something like 39,000 feet above the earth. Flight tracker says we are almost at the point where New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma meet. Having wi-fi in flight is pretty awesome. I also have a countdown to arrival on my browser. Looks like about an hour an a half left on this journey now.

I have loved getting away for awhile and of course spending time with my awesome friend Katie, but I am definitely ready to get home and see my man, the boys, and the rest of my awesome family. :)

Today's Epic Win...Followed By Today's Epic Fail

Today I walked into Shop N' Save armed with 11 coupons for $1.00 off of 1 jar of Ragu Pasta Sauce. I had been waiting for a sale to use these coupons and SNS finally had the sauce 2 for $3. I grabbed my 11 jars and made my way to the check out. When I got there, I discovered that Unilever is doing a special at SNS right now where if you spend $15 on Unilever products (which Ragu is), you instantly receive $5 off your purchase.

So here's how it went:

11 jars @ $1.50 per jar = $16.50
- $5 instant savings        = $16.50-$5=$11.50
- $1 x 11 coupons         = $11.50-$11=$0.50
Plus Tax                        = $.50+$.02= $0.52

That's right...I paid $0.52 and got ELEVEN jars of pasta sauce. I was SO excited.

So, I came home and went to unload the back of my car. Of course one of the glass jars rolled out and burst everywhere. All over the driveway and all over me. Then, the gallon of milk that I had just purchased followed suit and busted even further than the pasta sauce. Luckily, the jug burst in such a way that I was able to save half the gallon of milk in a pitcher.

Recycled Soda Bottle Planters

Check out my new tomato planter that I made using a soda bottle!

We have a ton of rabbits this year and for possibly the first time in my life, I have not killed my plants yet. They are growing like crazy and needed to be transplanted. I opted for the recycled soda bottle planter in hopes that this will keep the rabbits from eating the plants.

Materials: 

1 2L Soda Bottle, cleaned

1 seedling per bottle

Spanish moss

potting soil

twine

knife

Directions:

1. Remove the cap from the bottle and discard. 
2. Cut the bottom off of the bottle. 
3. About 2 inches up from the bottom, use the knife to make 4 holes. This is where you will tie the twine, so try to make them in sets of 2 across from each other to balance the bottle when it is hung. 
4. Cut a piece of twine and put the twine in one hole and tie securely.
5. Using the same piece of twine, tie the other end in the hole across from the one that you just tied.
6. Repeat step 4 and 5 for the other 2 holes. 
7. Take your seedling and place it in the bottle by pushing the leafs and stem through the nozzle of the bottle. The roots should be inside of the soda bottle. 
8. Plug the nozzle with a bit of Spanish Moss. This will prevent the plant and potting soil from falling out of the bottle over time. 
9. Fill the bottle with potting soil up to where the twine holes are. 
10. Make sure to water frequently. Because the soil will warm quicker than plants in the ground throughout the summer, it is best to water the plants twice a day.

Happy planting!

Coupon Success

I recently was told that I need to update my blog, so I am going to take a minute and brag on my awesomeness...I can do that-it's my blog after all.

This is the story of how I made money going to Walgreen's today.

I got a tip this morning on a sweet toothbrush deal at Walgreens. We always seem to need toothbrushes in our house because someone (ahem...Kody!) finds them tasty and swipes them off the counter. So, I visited 3 Walgreens on my way homeward and had no luck. The toothbrushes were all sold out. But then, I went back out to my Walgreens when I got home, because, of course I left the Redbox movie sitting on the table this morning. Finally I found what I had been looking for!! They had 4 of these toothbrushes, originally $1.79, on sale for $0.99. Then, I had 2 coupons each for $2 off when you buy 2 of the toothbrushes. So, at that point, I had made $0.04 on the deal, but it doesn't end there. Colgate is doing a wonderful deal right now where the Catalina machine at the register prints out Register Rewards for your next trip to Walgreens. It prints out $4 for buying 4 toothbrushes. So...I technically made $4.04 on the deal and I am rather proud of myself.

Happy couponing!

The Beginning of the End

As of today, I have 14 days of school left. Therefore, I have been working on developing some hobbies to occupy myself in my new found free time. I have already started my home decore projects as you have previously seen on this blog and I am all signed-up for my photography class so I can learn some new things about my awesome camera. In addition to these exciting activities, I have also started my own business!! You should probably go check it out.

Click on the image below to go to my website. From there, you should also hop on over to the Facebook site and click on "Like."

Click here to go to Roo's Remnants!

Spring Has Sprung

I have been planting! 

 I'm not really sure what this is since I didn't mark the seedlings that I planted. Any ideas?

The Mums from our wedding have started coming back! I was sure I had killed them by leaving them out all winter, but look at this amount of green leafy life that I discovered the other day! I took all 9 of them and cut out all the dead plant carnage and gave them some fresh dirt and plant food. 4 of them now have green life visibly growing out of them!

 My seedlings.

 

I can't take credit for planting this beautiful Lilac bush, but it sure does smell great! 

Wine and Dine: The New Kitchen Border!

Mama B came and put up our new wallpaper border! It looks awesome! 

The Bathroom: Before and After the Paint

My Popsicle and I recently painted the downstairs bathroom. 

Here are the before pictures:

Here are the after pictures:

It's olive green and we got a new shower curtain! 

new soap dispenser

 

new toothbrush holder

new shower curtain hooks too!

Project Update, Pictures Coming Later

Ok, so last time I updated, the kitchen was de-wallpapered and that was about it. Well, I am happy to report that much progress has been made this week thanks to some awesome helpers. The kitchen now has the new wine bottle border up thanks to Mama B and last night Popsicle and I painted the bathroom! The new shower curtain was hung today and with a few touch-ups and a thorough clean-up tomorrow, it is going to look fantastic! Pictures of both projects will be coming soon. 

My next major project will be painting the bedroom. I've settled on a color and even purchased some decore, but the trip to Ikea has yet to occur....

Also, I am collecting WINE CORKS for a small project that I am going to do for our kitchen. Please let me know if you have any you would be willing to donate. They can be used and have writing on them or whatever. I need about 100+ and right now I have 2 so any contribution would help. :)

Kitchen Project #1 Update: Bye Bye Birdies

Alas, I have finished removing the wallpaper border in the kitchen/hallway. I worked on it for awhile each day this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and got it finished and cleaned up the kitchen about half an hour before Joe got back from his motorcycle racing weekend.


Here are some pictures of the progress:

And here is a picture of Joe's activities this weekend. He got 2nd place on Saturday and 1st place on Sunday!

Project #1: Before Pictures

Here are some before pictures of our kitchen that I took yesterday prior to starting my attack on the wallpaper border. As it sits now, 5 of the small walls are done so I have 1 small wall left and the 3 big ones. It's going better now than it was last night though.

This is the old border that I am taking off the walls.

And so it begins...

Today I sent my husband off to his first motorcycle race of the season. I have decided that I will be embarking on household projects while my hubby is off having fun this year. 


This weekend, the projects are the kitchen wallpaper border removal and the painting of the downstairs bathroom. The paint was purchased tonight and the border project has been begun. However, the border project is going MUCH slower than expected. Only about a foot and a half of it was finished tonight. :/ Hopefully it will go better tomorrow. 


Tomorrow is also a busy day aside from my house projects-it's the opening day of the Kirkwood Farmer's Market AND the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Convention! Not to mention the homework I have due Sunday that hasn't been started...4 more weeks of this school stuff! 


Before pictures of the kitchen and bathroom to come tomorrow! :)