Weekend Photo Project!

I had the urge to do a crafty photo project today with items that I already had around the apartment. There is the blank white wall in our living room that really needed some TLC so, it was my inspiration. In my search for some items to inspire my creation, I found a roll of natural twine.....then my mind went running! I decided to make it simple with only 4 items needed: twine, B&W photos, paper clips, and clear thumb tacks.

Here is the before:

The next step was to decide how to hang the twine. I was torn between having 2 seperate rows or just one piece of twine draped side-to-side twice. The hubbs chimed in with his opinion and this is what we decided on.

The hardest part was deciding what pictures to use. I tried to use mostly family pictures, but a few friends made the cut too! I have this thing for black and white photos so, I printed them all out in B&W. Lastly, paper clip the picture on the twine , and you're DONE!

{hi hubbs}

The hubbs made fun of me for doing this especially since we are move into a new apartment in a month {which we haven't even started looking for yet, whoops}. But I will enjoy looking at it for the next month and maybe we will have a wall in the next place to do this with too.

Anyways, just a little weekend project...I hope you like it!

Have a great week everyone! Eeeekkk...my parents are coming in town this weekend and I am so excited because I haven't seen them since Christmas!

Quick DIY Project

So I did a post a while back about redesigning the guest bedroom/office at our apartment, but since I had not been able to get a job since moving here that redesign never happened. Now that I got a job, I am hoping to make that redesign happen sometime this year...but until then I have a quick DIY project that I did for organizational purposes.

My hubbs is a landscape architect so he always has tons of drawing and sketches on his desk so, I decided that I wanted to put some type of cork board on the wall by his desk to give him some where to pin papers up. As you can see that wall is pretty blank right now:


I had an extra frame like the ones hanging over the bed so, instead of just putting cork tiles right on the wall I decided to take advantage of this extra frame. All I had to do to get the frame ready was to move the glass from in front of the matting to behind the matting {since I obviously could not use the glass if I wanted it to be a cork board}. My reasoning for not just taking the glass completely out of the frame was that in case I wanted to use this as a frame again one day, the glass would be right there with it instead of stored somewhere random in the apartment {that I would probably forget about}. After doing this I took out all of my supplies:


Next I just hot glued the cork tile directly onto the matting and.....Voila, you're done! Now all you have to do is hang it on the wall!!



This was such an easy project and I love how all of the frames are consistent since they are on the same wall! Hopefully I will be doing a completely redesign soon since I will be bringing in the $$$!! I pretty much got a job to fund my crafting/decorating hobby!

On a side note, people in our neighborhood leave their "junk" on the sidewalk for others to take {amazing, I know}, and I found this old, glass beer half gallon that really wanted to come home with me. After a quick cleaning and some fresh flowers it was transformed into something beautiful:



I guess it is true that your trash is someone else's treasure. I think I may go sidewalk shopping again this weekend!

Hope you are having a great week!!

I heart Hummus!!

I find myself buying hummus every time I go to the grocery {which is often}. So, the other day I thought to myself, "why don't I try making my own...it has got to be cheaper and yummier!"

Well I spent a little while {I mean, hours} researching hummus recipes and here is a combination of a few of the recipes that I found.

Homemade {regular} Hummus
15.5 ounce can garbanzo beans
3 tablespoons tahini {kind of hard to find, but worth the hunt}
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
pinch of sea salt and pepper to taste
water {as needed}
recycled plastic containers

Directions:
1. Put everything {except the water} into your food processor and blend. Slowly add water {in small increments} until you reach your desired consistency.

{yes...this is the first time I am using our food processor, which was a wedding gift almost 2 years ago}


2. ENJOY!!

{I sprinkled a little cayenne on top for some color and a little bite}

**I also decided to make a Roasted Red Pepper Hummus {since this is the type I normal buy}. The recipe is exactly the same except add about 2 roasted red peppers to the food processor!


{I topped it with a diced roasted red pepper, just to be fancy}


This was the perfect afternoon snack {I need to get some celery and cucumbers to make this a little healthier}

*I case you are wondering what tahini is {like I did}...it is a sesame seed paste that looks a lot like peanut butter. It gives the hummus that nutty flavor. It is a little expensive {like $6 a container} but it should last a while. Look for it in your ethnic food aisle.

Next time I think that I will use roasted garlic instead of the raw. I found that the raw garlic had a little too much of a bite than I would have liked...plus I am pretty much obsessed with roasted garlic {sorry hubbs}!

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Homemade Yumminess!

I am probably the biggest pickle lover you will ever meet so, I decided to take a shot at making them homemade!!

I adapted the recipe from the Making Chicken Salad blog {i mentioned it here when I made my homemade cleaning products}.

{click here for the recipe}

*I adapted the recipe to fit a larger jar. I also decided to make pickled okra. Being from the South, I have definitely had my share of pickled okra over my 25 years of life...yum!! I used the same recipe as for the pickles except that I added 2 pinches of red pepper flakes for a little kick!

Here is the final product:


I am going to let the pickles and okra sit in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks before trying them. I really want them to absorb all of the flavors of the spices/herbs!

I will follow up about how deliciously, amazing these are...hopefully I can wait 2 weeks before having a taste!

Happy Tuesday!

Homemade Cleaning Products

I have been thinking a lot lately about making my own cleaning products. I thought that this would not only be a great way to be "green" but it wouldn't hurt to save a little bit of money too! I mentioned this here in my Top 2 Tuesday a few weeks ago.

I have mentioned before that I am kinda of OCD so I go through cleaning supplies pretty quickly!! Well yesterday I ran out of Windex glass cleaner and my multi-purpose cleaner so, I decided that this would be the perfect time to try making my own products...eeekkk!

I had previously researched recipes for these products and I found the "Making Chicken Salad" blog which provided great recipes along with creative labeling for your homemade products. All of the recipes that I am using were adapted from the "Making Chicken Salad" blog.

I made my supply list and I headed out {meaning walked} to my local hardware store and market. I purchased the following ingredients:


32 oz. trigger spray bottle for multi-purpose cleaner - $3.99
Recycled Windex bottle for glass cleaner - FREE
Distilled Water - $2.00
Distilled Vinegar - $1.59
4 lb. box of Borax - $5.19
16 fluid oz. bottle of Dr. Bronner's Lavendar soap - $9.99
0.5 oz. bottle of Nature's Alchemy 100% Pure Essential Oil "Lavender" - $9.99
TOTAL = $32.75
*Remember that you will only use a portions of these ingredient for one batch of each of these cleaning products and you can save the rest for future use*

Recipe for Window/Glass Cleaner:
2 cup distilled vinegar
2 cup distilled water
6 drops lavender essential oil

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together in the recycled Windex bottle

Recipe for Multi-Purpose Cleaner:
32 ounce trigger spray bottle
2 teaspoons borax
4 tablespoons distilled vinegar
1/2 cup Dr. Bronners Lavender soap
20 drops lavender essential oil
Hot water (enough to fill bottle)

Instructions:
Fill bottle 1/4 full with hot water then add borax. Shake to completely dissolve borax. Next add vinegar, home soap, and 20 drops essential oil. Fill the rest of the bottle with hot water. Gently shake mixture.

Now you have made your own cleaning products!!



*I decided to make my own labels, much like "Making Chicken Salad", and I love how they came out.

Now onto how much money I saved. I can't really estimate the exact cost of each bottle of cleaner, but when you see the amount of supplies that you have left {unused} I think that the money savings is obvious. A bottle of window cleaner and a bottle of multi-purpose cleaner, when bought at the store cost at least $6-7 each. So I would estimate that the supplies purchased above can make at least 3-4 batches of each cleaner. The most expensive products like the essential oil and Dr. Bronner's soap will last you a long time!

I hope that you enjoyed this post, and I hope that you too try to make your own cleaning products!! Keep checking back with me because as other cleaning products run out I will be switching to homemade.....I will be tackling homemade laundry detergent soon!

Be Clean and Be Green!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

So my interview/meeting went well yesterday. I keep calling it a meeting because it was not technically an interview...we were more meeting to discuss possible career paths. When I left his office I felt like our meeting was very positive and that a great things was going to come out of it. Today I have hear from 2 different people that work for the person I met with yesterday, and they wanted to schedule official interviews with me....YEAH!!



Keep me in your thoughts because I really want a job {the hubbs and I really NEED me to get a job}!


**By popular demand, I will be posting tomorrow about my first attempt at homemade cleaning products! Stay tuned!


Happy Blogging!

Top 2 Tuesday-Helpful TIPS

This week's Top 2 Tuesday over at The Undomestic Momma is fun because it is so broad that I think the responses will all be so different!! The topic is Top 2 Tips on money saving, beauty, DIY, cooking, cleaning, blogging, shopping, etc.

1. My first tip is a DIY tip. When you go shopping for something that you need in your house/apartment go to the expensive/fancy stores that you would LOVE to buy the item from and figure out how you can do it yourself. Never spend top dollar on an item when you could DIY it for cheaper! I recently did a post about a $10-15 pencil/pen cup that I wanted for my hubby's office, but instead I DIYed it!

It is also a great idea to find a DIY blog that can give you ideas too!! Here are some of my favorites:
-Casa Sugar
-Young House Love

2. My second tip is a cleaning tip. It is kind of ironic that I am writing a tip about this since I have yet to try it, but.....I think that everyone should try to make their own cleaning products. I promise that I will be trying this as my current cleaning products empty out. I have been researching this topic a lot lately, and I think it is a very interesting idea because it is not only green but also money-saving!! So, stay tuned for a post in the future about this exciting experiment!!


(Source)

Here are some blogs that I have found about making your own cleaning products:

-Passionate Homemaking
-Making Chicken Salad
(This site also has the cute labels in the above picture that you can print out for your homemade products!!)

Happy Blogging!