Thrifty Holiday Storage Solution

I'm a bit of a cheap-o, so when it came down to storing all my Christmas decor I was not about to pay $20 for the storage containers sold at most stores.

I saw storage solutions like these everywhere and immediately thought I could that!

I had all the supplies already on hand, so I didn't have to shell out any dough. Just the way I like it!

I already had a large Storage Container that I was using to store my Christmas stuff and I had tons of cardboard boxes laying around from all the online shopping I do. (Yeah, I'm guilty of being that girl).

I started by cutting the boxes down to size. I wanted the storage grid to be tall enough and wide enough to fit some bigger ornaments. The length and width of the strips of cardboard depend on the size of your container, but I found that 6" was the perfect height for my big ornaments and created plenty of space to double up some of the ornaments. I cut slits into the lengthwise cardboard strips. You want to create slits that are wide enough to fit over the cardboard, but thin enough so that it sits snugly over the cardboard.

Set up your grid pattern inside your container. It should look something like this.

Now you can add a piece of cardboard over your grid and make another grid to stack on top or you can just start storing stuff over the ornaments.

For the Christmas lights I just took leftover strips of cardboard and wrapped the lights around them. It's as simple as that.

Viola! Christmas storage made cheap!

 

What thrifty storage solutions have you come up with??

2,400 Miles

That's how many miles we drove this Holiday season.

It was an 18 hour drive each way from Maryland to Miami.

I'm so grateful that the dog didn't barf in the car.

We vegged out on the couch, stuffed our faces, hung out with family, went out maybe once or twice, slept in late, stayed in our pj's all day, and opened presents.

Somewhere along the way we got drunk a few times (NOT while we were driving though).

For 2 weeks we did nothing. And we're proud of it!

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!

I'm working on various projects and hopefully they'll be done soon, so stay tuned!

Crunch Time

pro·cras·ti·nate   verb \prə-ˈkras-tə-ˌnāt, prō-\
pro·cras·ti·nat·ed       pro·cras·ti·nat·ing
transitive verb: what Gaby intentionally and habitually does to put off intentionally and habitually
intransitive verb: to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done my new name
— pro·cras·ti·na·tion \-ˌkras-tə-ˈnā-shən\ noun
— pro·cras·ti·na·tor \-ˈkras-tə-ˌnā-tər\ noun

The origin of PROCRASTINATE comes the Latin word procrastinatus, from pro- forward + crastinus of tomorrow.  

There always come a point in the time-line of our lives when it becomes quite apparent that we suck at schedules. Then you realize the two months you originally gave yourself to finish a million projects has just turned into one month due to the above mentioned procrastination. Now you're going to have to work like a dog to get everything done in time. Absolutely magnificant. Please note the sarcasm in the use of a (.) instead of an (!).

Without further ado, here's the list of crap that needs to get done before January 31st. Why, the 31st you may ask? Because my last semester of nursing school starts on February 1st and them professors aren't taking any prisoners. Boo.

• Lots and lots of throw pillows
• Finish LR roman shades
• Fix office roman shade that I totally screwed up
• Paint basement
• Sand/paint fireplace surround/mantel
• Paint basement hallway
• Hang mirror in entryway
• Paint telephone table
• Finish upholstering telephone table cushion
• Touch up paint powder room
• Built in shelves for power room
• Touch up paint basement guest bedroom
• Remove tape from ceiling in basement guest bedroom
• Drywall inside of basement closet
• Paint basement closet
• Install new laundry tub in laundry closet
• Mount drying rack to wall in laundry closet
• Paint stripes in guest bedroom wall
• Paint/caulk guest bathroom mirror
• Take down Christmas tree and chuck it
• Create a Christmas ornament storage-box-container-holder-type-thing
• Paint shelves for office
• Hang shelves for office
• Reassemble and paint coffee table
• Add length to shower curtain
• Fix copper pipe in shower that isn't secured in place and causes the shower caddy to slip and shampoo to fall on my head
• Paint around light fixture in guest bathroom
• Paint master bathroom
• Sand/paint master bathroom cabinet
• Repair master bathroom toilet
• Change electrical crap in master bathroom
• Change tub spout and valve in guest bathroom
• Change valve in master bathroom shower
• Hang glass shelves in master bathroom
• Fix over-the-door rack in master bathroom so the door can actually close
• Buy supplies for basement guest bedroom headboard
• Upholster headboard for basement guest bedroom

I'll probably add to this list as I think of more things to do. The works starts next Tuesday. Hopefully.

Christmas Tree

Our tree is up and presents are wrapped.

This is actually the first year I put up a tree since moving to Maryland 3 years ago. I've accumulated a few ornaments here and there and recently purchased a couple packs, but I think I still need more.

Anyways she looks pretty naked barren.

I've done the color coordinated red and gold tree before, but lately I've been feeling a little more adventurous and loved all the whimsical ornaments I've been finding at vintage stores and Macy's in particular.

I was having a hard time getting a picture of the full tree, so here's a peak at the skirt I picked up at Michael's for $20. It's made out of felt and has bells and puff balls attached to it, but the presents are covering most of it.

I picked up the flower at a vintage shop the year before last (told you I've been accumulating ornaments lol) for about $7. I bought the house ornament to commemorate the purchase of our first house. In gold marker I wrote on the bottom of the ornament "Our 1st home 2010" and included our address for hopefully future generations to see.


Below the house is an ornament of a Bichon Frise I found last year (again, I've been collecting them) in honor of my little man.

 See the resemblance??

I found a lion and an owl at Macy's. They were about $2-4 each. Pretty f-ing cute if you ask me :)

 

I also found a robot!

And a Baltimore cityscape ornament in honor of the area we live in. We don't live in Baltimore, but it's 15 minutes away. When anyone from out of town asks, we pretty much say Baltimore...

And here are a few more vintage ornaments I found.

Hopefully after Christmas when all the leftover Christmas stuff gets heavily discounted I can find some more ornaments. Crossing my fingers.

Ball-o-Yarn Ornament

The multitude of posts that are clogging up filling my blog roll recently have inspired me to share my own DIY ornament.

This has definitely been done before (hence where my idea came from) so I claim no proprietary rights for this idea and promise not sue anyone for patent infringement if and when you copy me.

Gather your supplies:

 Aleene's Original Tacky Glue 

Glass Christmas Ornaments (any size)

Yarn (any color, I went for the color I wanted in the cheapest brand I could find)

Note: You don't have to use clear glass ornaments, you can really use just about anything. Racquetballs or ping pong balls would work wonderfully as well.

Step 1: Take off the thingy at the top of the ornament.

Step 2: Dab a little glue at the neck of the ball and hold yarn in place. At this point walk away for 5-10 minutes so that the glue can dry. If you don't walk away you'll be pulling off the yarn every 9 seconds to see if it's dry yet. Trust me. I pulled it off. Every 9 seconds. For like 6 minutes.

Step 4: Add a few lines of glue going down the ball. Not too long though, it tends to dry up fast.

Step 5: Wrap your yarn around the ornament.

Step 6: Keep wrapping.

Step 7: At some point when you hit the fattest part of the ball it starts to get harder to wrap the yarn around using the glue lines I mentioned above. So I tried the method in this picture out and that seemed to work better.

Step 8: Finish wrapping the whole ball. You can leave it how it is or you can go crazy wrapping the yarn in all sorts of directions. I chose to keep it sorta simple. It was late and I was tired, so I got lazy.

Please excuse the pictures. My camera all of the sudden takes crap pictures. Apparently my iPhone does a better job. Me not happy.

Pottery Barn Knockoff

Pottery Barn has some pretty smoking hot lamps. I especially love these:

Eva colored Glass Table Lamp

Atrium Glass Table Lamp

Problem is the Eva lamp goes for $99 and the Atrium lamp goes for $139. No way was I going to dish out that kind of dough for a lamp.

That is, until I saw a large bottle similar to the above at Ross for $15. Wham-o! The idea struck me, I can make my own PB knockoff lamp!!

COST BREAKDOWN

bottle vase = $15

 lamp kit = $10

lamp shade = $3

flange = $2

TOTAL COST = $30

PARTY HARDY

Tips on how to make this lamp can be found after the jump.

Someone Take the Computer Away From Me!

What started out as a mission to find heavily discounted Ugg boots to keep my toes warm, ended with me blowing $40 on fabric.

1 - Island to Island Cotton Fabric $2.99/yd
2 - Waverly Cross Section Charcoal $7.18/yd
3 - Premier Prints ZigZag Kelso Brown/French Blue $5.58/yd
4 - Poppy Fields on Orange Cotton Fabric $2.99/yd

Fabrics #1,3, & 4 I plan to use for throw pillows (in different rooms of course). Fabric #2 is destined for a headboard.

I have my heart set on a tufted headboard, but I don't know if the pattern of fabric #2 will look good with tufts. What do you think?

Holiday Giveaway

I came across this incredible giveaway and thought I would pass along the Christmas cheer. Today's Mama is  giving away... get ready for it.... are you ready yet? If not, I can wait.... How about now? Ok, ok... I'll tell you.

One XBox 360 250 GB with Kinect 

One Nintendo Red Wii Bundle 

Three Nintendo Red DSi XL Bundles 

&&&&&& a ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR GameStop gift certificate!!

Just follow the instructions at the link below.

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?
Lots and lots of good health and happiness.
2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition?
Sleeping in late. lol
3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?
A European vacation to escape the cold.
4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
Spending time with the family.
5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
Monopoly, Connect Four, Scrabble, Guess Who, checkers!
6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
It started with opening one present at midnight, and then one Christmas Eve we just opened all the presents at midnight. Now, we open all our gifts at midnight.
7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip?
Please refer to #3 above. :) But when I'm not dreaming we go "home" for the holidays to Miami to be with our families.
8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? 
XBox Kinect  and Dance Central for me, and Professor Layton and the Unwound Future for the man of the house.

Christmas Came Early...

... and right in time for Thanksgiving.

Neither one of us is big on surprises, so when it comes time for gift giving we usually just tell each other what we want or agree to get one big awesome thing we can both enjoy. We did the latter this year.

I had been stalking Amazon for a couple of weeks after I found this beauty on Rue La La for about $250 w/ shipping. I became obsessed.

KitchenAid Pro 500 Series Stand Mixer

After a little research I decided to skip the Pro 500 series and set my eyes on the Professional 600 series in Empire Red. I figured with the holidays nearing it was bound to go on sale so I carefully placed it in my Amazon shopping cart and continued to stalk Rue La La, Gilt Groupe, and One King's Lane on a daily basis. About a week later the clouds parted and the skies opened up. The stand mixer I wanted dropped from $380 to $275. I proceeded through the Amazon checkout process faster than you can say Amazon checkout process.

KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Empire Red

We've already used her twice! He used her to make zucchini bread (which is delicious by the way) and I used her to make garlic mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. She works like a beaut!

<3I'm in love<3

A quick note on Amazon stalking: In case you didn't already know this... you add an item to your shopping cart and just leave it there and each time you return to your shopping cart Amazon will tell you if the price has changed. It looks something like this:

Courtesy of GetElastic.com

 

I've been a bad girl!

Well, sort of. I've been a bad blogger, a bad housewife, a bad house remodeler, but a good nursing student. As my instructors keep saying... prioritize your actions!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we're hosting this year. And by hosting I mean 10+ people will be staying at our house for the week[end]. Let me paint you a picture of how ready we are to play host to a baker's dozen - we only have one fully functioning bathroom. Oh and the water temperature in the shower sucks so don't even think about showering after someone else.

On a related note, I got a pretty sweet deal on a bed for the basement bedroom! I don't know if you've heard of Groupon.... but Groupon is awesome! If you haven't joined the action yet, you can join by clicking this referral link (it's a deal-of-the-day website that offers special deals at select stores and restaurants in your area and at times they offer nationwide deals). One of the Washington DC area Groupons for this past weekend was $95 for $200 worth of Roomstore furniture. After conferring with Mr. Boss Man, I immediately hit BUY NOW!!!!

I hurriedly typed Roomstore in my browser and began scanning their mattress selection. I'm pretty sure the basement guestroom is too small for a queen bed so I made the executive decision to make our guests sleep on a full size bed. I also made the executive decision to buy a mattress without test driving it at the store because frankly, I ain't sleeping on it so I don't give a damn how uncomfortable it is. Maybe that makes me a bad house host, but whatever... I do what I want.

I settled on the cheapest better quality Hartwick mattress/boxspring set. We opted to pick up the mattress and boxpring ourselves to save us a cool $100 on delivery charges. Hm, hopefully I can add mattress to the list of things that fit in my Prius. I moseyed on over to Amazon and purchased this bed frame to go with the mattress set.

Are you ready for the grand total??

TOTAL COST

Mattress/Boxspring Set @ Roomstore     $349.99

Cost of Groupon    $95

 Picking it up ourselves     FREE

Bed Frame from Amazon (w/ free "Prime" shipping)     $52.99 

Minus the coupons ....

10% off coupon from Roomstore     -$35

Groupon Coupon       -$200

TOTAL = $269.88 (including tax)

Compared to the original full price of $475.93 (including mattress, boxspring, delivery, bed frame, 's and tax) I think I got a pretty sweet deal! 

I just checked and today's Baltimore Groupon is $99 for $300 worth of Ethan Allen furniture. I was sitting next to Mr. Boss Man as I checked out the deal, but before I could even finish saying "Ooooooh" he shot me down. Has anyone else had any sweet deals lately?