Jewelry Organizer- New Life for old Frame (upcycled from old frame who's glass had broken)

I have several frames, large ones, that have broken glass that I've been holding onto knowing I could use them in the future. My mom had given a table-top jewelry organizer to my daughter. It worked, but my daughter would load up each arm with 4-5 pieces of jewelry in order to fit them all on it, some of them would drag on the shelf when it was turned because it wasn't tall enough, & it took up a lot of shelf space for the minimal efficiency it provided. I'm all for using empty wall space so using an old frame as a jewelry organizer was perfect. Also, each jewelry piece would be able to have its own hook, so she could quickly look at everything & decide what she wanted to wear as well as easily get rid of anything she didn't want anymore.

Here's what you need to make your own. :)
Old frame with broken glass removed
Staple gun & extra staples
Needle or long-nosed pliers or tin snips
Hardware cloth, 1/4 inch mesh
Chalkboard paint & brush (optional) - if your frame has a flat surface & you want to use chalk to label and/or decorate your frame
Chalk (optional) - a variety of colors makes for a more cheerful frame
Paint & brush (optional) - if your frame has textured surface & just needs a "freshening up"
Hammer
Old rag or sponge (optional - for applying paint to the hardware cloth)
S-hooks or metal wire & long-nosed pliers (to make your own s-hooks)
Measuring implement (optional)
Wall-hangers









1.) I could have used the needle-nosed pliers & wiggled out the metal pieces that previously held the frame backing in place, but since no one is going to see them when the organizer is hanging up, I just bent them over so they're flush with the wood.




2.) Use the edge of the staple gun to crease the hardware cloth into a 90-degree angle into the corner of the frame back & staple - I had to staple the hardware cloth into the side of the frame because the front of the frame was too thin to take the staples without the staples coming out of the front of the frame.




Here's the front of the frame with the hardware cloth stapled to it.




3.) (Optional) Use paintbrush to paint frame. Use old rag, dabbing it lightly with paint onto the hardware cloth.




4.) After the paint dries, hang, attach s-hooks (make your own with wire & long-nosed pliers if needed), organize jewelry, decorate and/or label with chalk, & enjoy!




Jewelry organizer shown with her hook board. Click here for hook board tutorial.




I happened to have some random plastic s-hooks around.




Clearly I haven't had a chance to make her s-hooks yet (& I didn't want to spend $20 on them). ;)





If you've enjoyed this tutorial, please follow my blog. I love to share upcycling tutorials with folks who appreciate making nice items on the cheap. :)

Northampton, MA & La Veracruzana

My friends & family know of my general distain for Massachusetts - the noise, the traffic, the grime, the drivers (!!!!) & their complete disregard for traffic laws... However on the way home from an event in Westfield yesterday, we made a stop in Northampton. We knew we were going to be heading home around lunch time, so rather than eating lunch on the road too (the husband & I had been up since 4:30 am, the kids since 5 am, & we all ate a homemade breakfast in the car) we decided to treat ourselves to a lunch out. With two kids & hectic schedules, this is not a common event.

I have to hand it to my husband - he is BRILLIANT when it comes to finding locally-owned, fun, little quirky places. Our daughter wanted Mexican so he took us to La Veracruzana (http://www.laveracruzana.com/) on Main Street. But back to the restaurant in a minute. Driving in to Northampton, first of all, I was in awe. So many beautiful stone buildings, brick buildings, wrought iron fences, sculptures, & I only spotted one chain store (CVS). Plenty of working cross walks with many, many walking people using them. Lots of bikes chained up on the side walks. All marks of a great down town. :)

Finding a parking spot on Main Street on a Sunday around lunch time was not difficult, although I can see it being an issue. There were parking spots lining both side of the street & on side streets, although the only lots we saw were permit only.

Back to the restaurant, La Veracruzana was a sweet little places to get lunch. The decor was colorful & fresh, bright paint colors, lively patterned tiles, boldly colored masks, & - my favorite piece - an oil painting of the virgin Mary hanging on a wall surrounded by blinking colored Christmas lights. :)

Most items are the menu are priced $5-10, very reasonable. I ordered the fish tacos. They were, by far, the best fish tacos I've ever had. The sauce was not too fancy, as I've had with fish tacos at other establishments. These were light, flavorful, & just the perfect portion of food for lunch. We ordered a basket of chips ($3) & tried several salsas from the salsa bar. The salsas were great, each one unique in it's flavor. We enjoyed them all except the beer salsa - we weren't a fan. It tasted like someone poured light beer into salsa & was watery & weak. My husband ordered a steak burrito, a meal he has ordered at other Mexican restaurants. He found his meal as I found mine - simple yet flavorful, with no over-bearing heavy, cheesy, runny sauces that hide the good, simple flavors of the ingredients. I only wish we lived closer to La Veracruzana so that we could try everything on the menu! http://www.laveracruzana.com/docs/menu2010.pdf The menu at the restaurant is written on several large chalkboards, so I can't be certain that this menu is exact, however this will give you an idea of items & prices.

(Right)

"First Church"

Northampton, MA

Lens: Tejas

Film: Ina's 1969

Flash: none

Our son is 2 1/2 & he is, well, he is 2 1/2 & all that that brings. He's been known to sit through a meal but not on this day. When I was done with my meal I took him outside for a walk. Or, as he likes do do, spin, drag his feet, & jump. ;)

(Left)

"Roost"

Northampton, MA

Lens: Tejas

Film: Ina's 1969

Flash: none

The weather was beautiful, perfectly comfortable sweatshirt weather if not a tad bit windy. Blue skies & sunshine. Odd for January but it did make for nice walking weather. :)

(Right)

"Shadow Play"

Northampton, MA

Lens: Tejas

Film: Ina's 1969

Flash: none

We popped into a sweet little shop called "The Chocolate Emporium" because, well, we'd been up since 4:30 am, we wanted some coffee & they had a neon "coffee" sign in the window. Upon entering the shop we were engulfed with the overpowering scent of chocolate. We did look around quickly but settled on coffee & two loli-pops, one for each of the kids. The second we entered the shop it was clear that it was, first & foremost, a chocolate shop & not a coffee shop. We should have treated ourself to a few pieces of chocolate & gotten our coffee else where as the coffee was, well, not great. However now we have another excuse to return. :)

Warm Winter Walk in the Woods (& fun with Hipstamatic)

A warm winter walk in the woods is always wonderfully welcome.

Okay. Done with the alliteration now. ;)

It's been unseasonably warm & free of snow here this month. As much as I love New Hampshire in the winter (snowshoeing!!) it was nice to get out today with minimal layers & enjoy a stroll through the woods with no biting wind, which is sometimes an issue this time of year.

You'll notice I didn't do much experimenting with different lenses or film - my son, who I was carrying on my back with the Ergo (review to come!) does NOT like it when I stop to take a quick shot, so standing in one place for 30-40 seconds while experimenting was out of the question. ;-)


(Above)
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: None


(Above)
"Twisting Trees"
This pair of birches, one silver & one paper white, wrapped around each other 3 times, it was quite sweet.
Lens: Libatique 73
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: none


(Above)
"Winter Moss"
It's amazing just how green the moss stays, even in the winter. Usually it's all covered in 1-3 feet of snow by this time, so I've never seen it before.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: None


(Above)
"Winter Reflection"
This one just speaks for itself. Peace...
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: None


(Above)
"Living Winter"
It was amazing just how many lichens & wild spearmint (both pictured above) were visible in the middle of Winter.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: None









(Above, all 3)
"Winter 'Stained Glass' Ice" I, II, & III
I've never seen ice form in such a linear way before. It was quite stunning.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: None

Juicing Today - "Watermelon Pineapple Punch" & "Carrot Cocktail"

Even though my husband and I have finished our first juice fast, we still want to incorporate juices into our everyday diet. Today I made the Watermelon Pineapple Punch & Carrot Cocktail.

I like to lay out all of the ingredients ahead of time.


Watermelon-Pineapple Punch
Ingredients (makes 3 jars, 3/4 full):
1/4 watermelon (rind removed)
1 lemon (peeled)
5 oranges (peeled)
1/2 pineapple (cored & rind removed)
I like to put the juice, even the juice I'm planning on drinking right away, in empty sauce jars or mason jars, that way I can easily shake them up before each sip - the juices settles quickly.


Carrot Cocktail
Ingredients (makes 1 jar full):
2 organic apples (cored)
2 small beets
1 orange (peeled)
3 carrots


This is the Carrot Cocktail. Don't let the unearthly reddish color put you off, it's really quite good. ;)


The wonderful thing about juicing is the wonderful food scraps it makes for the compost pile. :) Waste not!


Enjoy! :)

Garlic Focaccia Bread (Vegan)

My recipes can now be found on my new blog, "bitch in the kitch[en]".

Snow Dusting on Rock (fun experimenting with Hipstamatic)

Lens: Tejas

Film: Ina's 1969

Flash: none

Lens: Tejas

Film: Kodot XGrizzled

Flash: none

Lens: Tejas

Film: AO DLX

Flash: none

Lens: Tejas

Film: AO BW

Flash: none

Mellow Yellow Upcycled Scarf (upcycled from ugly yellow cotton vest)

This had been a horribly ugly yellow sweater vest that I got from The Salvation Army for $1-. I unraveled a good portion of it & made this simple scarf. I used a simple twirly scarf pattern. The only stitches you need to know to do this are single, double, & you need to know how to increase & decrease stitches - increasing & decreasing will create the twirl. Can be made with any gauge yarn to create a scarf of any length and width. Fully customizable & unique. :)

My Experience with BumGenius Diapers

Upon thinking about reviewing my experience using BumGenius diapers (& FuzziBunz Diapers - will post soon) I realized that I need to, in the future, post a general blog regarding my over-all experience with cloth diapering my son.

I knew I wanted to cloth diaper since before I got pregnant with my son, so I had 9+ months to research diapers. At first, my thought was I could find a pattern & make my own while I was pregnant & they'd be done by the time I gave birth. Sure, if that was the ONLY thing I had to do while pregnant, I could have made all the diapers he'd need. But, alas, it was not. ;) And thus began my search for the perfect cloth diaper.

At first I was CRAZY about the BumGenius AIO (All-In-One). Here are the initial pros that swayed me to purchase 2-dozen of these in first place:

• It's adjustable so I could purchase 2-dozen or so & they'd last until my son was out of diapers.
• They have the liners sewn in & diaper cover sewn on (hence all-in-one) so I didn't have to waste time assembling the diaper.
• The liners are organic cotton, so I knew they'd be safe against my son's baby-sensitive skin.
• They used snap closures. After vast amounts of research & reading reviews on snaps v. hook and loop (Velcro), I decided against hook and loop because a huge number of people who opted for hook and look closure for one-size diapers were disappointed in how quickly they wore out & many ended up buying snaps & a tool to attach snaps & retrofitted their diapers after the hook & loop closures stopped working in order to get more life out of them.

For the first year or so, the only issue I had with cloth was my son had diaper rash caused by a yeast infection so I began running bleach through the second wash cycle to kill any bacteria. After the first year I started to notice spots of wear, mainly along the edge where the elastic is. Then where the liners are sewn to the diaper, especially at the corners. And finally the lining themselves. Eventually all of these worn areas developed holes that have been gradually getting bigger & bigger as time goes on. The elastics are pretty much shot. Thankfully my son hasn't had any serious blow-outs. Several of the diapers have lost 1 or 2 snaps (there are a total of 4 on each diaper, 2 on each side), but so far only 1 diaper has been rendered useless (because it lost both snaps on 1 side).

I'll be honest, I never wrote to the company to complain that these diapers are falling apart. I may in the future, & if I do I'll share that correspondence. I have not been impressed with how these diapers have held up. I was hoping to consign them once my son was done with them & make a little bit of money back, but I'm just going to have to toss them. I feel less guilty about tossing two dozen cloth diapers, however, as opposed to the guilt from what would have amounted to nearly 9,000 disposable diapers if I hadn't gone the cloth-diaper route. (365 days/year x 8 diapers/day x 3 years = 8,760 diapers)

I always followed the washing instructions & line-dried the diapers 99.9% of the time; these diapers have seen the inside of a dryer less than a dozen times. So there's really no excuse for them to be practically falling apart now - the second photograph is of the worst diaper. It has gaping holes all along the elastic, along the liner edge, & the liner itself is falling off.

Over-all, good concept. Not happy with the out-come 2 1/2 years later though. Wouldn't recommend based on our experience.

Cotton Shells Afghan I Made for My Niece

Cotton Shells Afghan I Made for my Niece

I like to crochet with cotton yarn (I used Lily's Sugar 'n Cream for this afghan). I know acrylic is supposed to be easier to clean but I prefer working with natural fibers.

The colors of her nursery are green & purple & were built around a monkey with purple & green & a floral headband. So I took my inspiration from her nursery.

I used a simple shell pattern, alternating green & purple, & improvised the border as I crocheted.

A close-up of the flower.

My First Juice Fast (4 days) & My Favorite Juicing Recipes

**Disclaimer: let me start out by saying that I am, BY NO MEANS, an expert in juice fasting. This is simply an account of my own experience & some of my favorite recipes. Thank you :) **

My husband and I did a juice fast recently (or a juice feast as my Uncle so lovingly calls it). I've wanted to do one for years, before I got pregnant with our son (& he's 2 1/2 years old now so add nine months & I've wanted to do one for longer than that). One of my husbands co-workers was inspired by the documentary "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead" & did his own juice fast & that's what triggered my husband.

Our goal was 10 days, although from the beginning we said we'll go as far as we wanted. No killing ourselves to get to 10 days just to say we did. In retrospect doing a juice fast in the winter was probably not the best idea. However I wanted to jump-start my post-holiday weight loss & cleanse my body of all of the toxins I'd allowed in over the previous months. Halloween through New Years is a time I allow myself to indulge a bit, put on a little winter insulation, although this year I grossly overdid it & my weight suffered.

My husband lasted two days. I lasted four. I know myself & I'm stubborn as anything. I could have juiced for longer, however I'm also in the process of trying to get our house ready to put on the market as well as potty-training our son, so I decided to save my stubbornness for those items & try a juice fast again in the Spring or Summer.

I didn't miss chewing quite as much as I thought I would. And once I got past the first 2 days I was fine (it got significantly easier after day 1). Although I'll admit, having company for days 3 & 4 & having to put out food for them was, well, annoying. Not the fact that I couldn't eat it. But the fact that I'd spend an hour, hour & a half juicing my juices for the day first thing in the morning, then clean the juicer, then prepare food for everyone else, clean those food prep dishes, wait until everyone was done eating, then clean their dirty dishes - it was just a LOT of dishes. By the end of day 4, I found myself weeping over the ridiculous amount of dirty dishes I'd had to do & I decided to end the fast on the following day. Weeping over dirty dishes?? Yeah. Not worth it. ;-)

Getting ready, I cut out the following items for the 3 days before beginning the fast (I'm vegetarian so I already don't eat meat but I'm not vegan so I do eat dairy & fish):

• alcohol
• caffeine (except for the scant amount in green tea - basically I just gave up coffee)
• carbs (potatoes, bread, & pasta items)
• tortilla chips
• rice
• cheese
• sweets

When you're coming down off of the cleanse, it's important reintroduce your digestive track to food slowly, just as you prepped your body for the juice fast.

Some tips I found helpful for myself & will remember for the next time I do it:

• Juicing requires a huge amount of fruits & veggies. Use this as an excuse to clean your fridge & make room for everything you'll need. Do your shopping ahead of time. If you think you'll need one of something, buy two. Trust me. I shopped strictly for juicing on the day before we started, on day 2, and again on day 4 (I spent about $35 each trip).
• Print out 30+ recipes ahead of time. Variety is key. You won't be chewing anything for days & if you're bored with your juice varieties, it'll make it difficult. At the beginning of each day, make a note next to each recipe you want to make for the day & lay them out on your counter. Take out all of the ingredients from the fridge. Wash everything. Make all of your juices in the morning. I stored mine in glass canning jars, labeled them, & put them in the fridge. Make an extra for the following morning so you don't have to wait to have your first juice.
• When you first get up in the morning, take your breakfast juice out of the fridge. I found that drinking them closer to room temperature was easier. Something fridge-temperature hitting my stomach only make me feel wildly hungry. "Chew" your juice to release saliva which begins the digestive process. While you're drinking one juice, have a second waiting for you on the counter. It'll be room temperature by the time you're done with the one you're drinking & won't have to wait for it to warm up.
• Sip your juice throughout the day. Don't guzzle it like you might guzzle water on a hot day. I found I felt more full by carrying a jar of juice around with me & sipping on it every 5-10 minutes. Once I got past days 1 & 2, I didn't experience any hunger pains at all.
• Make a variety of juices. Try something you're not sure you'll like. I thought for sure I'd like ginger in my juices since I love to eat it in my food, but I was not a fan. And I wasn't sure about beets in my juices, but it turns out I like them juiced more than cooked. Go figure! So it's worth it to give it a try. The worst that could happen is you don't like it.
• You'll pee constantly. If you have to be in the car for a significant length of time (an hour+) make sure you stop sipping juice 20-30 minutes before you leave unless you want to have to stop at a public rest room or be wildly uncomfortable with a full bladder. I only made this mistake once.
• Don't be alarmed if your BM's become irregular. I only pooped twice in 4 days.

Here they are, my favorite juice recipes:

(I peeled my oranges, lemons, & pineapples - & cored - removed the watermelon rinds, & cored my apples & pears prior to juicing, FYI)

Organic items marked with an *

Carrot-Spinach Juice

• 2 handfuls of baby *spinach leaves
• 5 carrots
• 1 handful of parsley
• 3 sticks of *celery

Carrot, Celery, Cabbage Juice

• 4 carrots
• 2 stalks of *celery
• 1 small (1.5-2 in.) wedge of green cabbage

Carrot Lemonade

• 5 carrots
• 1 lemon
• 1 *apple
• 1 small (1.5-2 in.) wedge of red cabbage

Watermelon-Pineapple Punch

• 1/4 watermelon
• 1 lemon
• 5 oranges
• 1/2 pineapple

Pineapple Cocktail

• 1/2 pineapple
• 1/2 cup radishes
• 2 stalks *celery

Carrot Cocktail

• 2 *apples
• 2 small *beets
• 1 orange
• 3 carrots

Green Apple Juice

• 1 *apple
• 3 carrots
• 1 handful of parsley
• 2 handfuls of baby *spinach leaves

Morning Juice

• 4 carrots
• 2 oranges

Carrot & Apple OJ

• 3 carrots
• 1 *apple
• 1 orange

Liver Cleanser

• 1 small *beet
• 3 *apples

"Flower" Juice

• 1 cup cauliflower
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1 *apple

One thing my husband had read was that your stomach uses different enzymes to digest fruits than it does to digest veggies. Apples are supposed to be the only "acceptable" fruit you can add to veggie juice. I'm not sure how much truth there is to this statement, but clearly I did not follow it 100%. I figured hey, it's enough that I'm doing a juice fast at all without getting terribly picky about what I'm putting into each one. ;)

Enjoy! :)

Organizing My Linen Closet in 3 hours for Under $40

Let it be said that I can not stand when things are disorganized. I'm a busy mom and when I reach for something I expect it to be there. I'm also not patient (a fact that I'm sure my husband would be willing to lovingly attest to) so when things aren't where they're supposed to be, I get, well, irritated.

That being said, I present the reorganization of my linen closet for under $40 (I bought 4 plastic drawer sets for $9.99 each, I owned all of the other items already).

To the far left is a shot of the linen

closet pre-organization before & to the right of that, a shot of the post organization.

A few disclaimers: this project took several hours (maybe 3), however that includes entertaining my son every 5-15 minutes so your time may vary. We also have a pup so I was careful with the personal care products, medicine, vitamins, etc. Kept a close eye on both the pup & my 2 1/2 year old while those items were out. We have a child-proof cover on the knob so once the door is closed, it's not an issue. Just something to keep in mind if you're tackling a project like this with pets and/or young kids around.

Here are the before shots of each shelf:

TOP SHELF: the fire extinguisher (not handy), toilet paper (which my daughter couldn't reach & I'd always have to drop what I was doing if she needed a new roll), a few random first aid items, a first aid kit, the clippers I use to cut my husband's & son's hair, my husband's travel toiletry bag, & a tin of great soaps I got for Christmas.

2ND SHELF: To be honest, this shelf was not entirely

disorganized. I always knew where things

were. My family, however, did not. And they'd knock over items while riffling through the shelf looking for whatever they were looking for & I'd end up being the one who had to fix it. It just got old.

THIRD SHELF: Towel shelf. Probably the most well-organized. ;)

FOURTH SHELF: This was not good. Random beach towels. Large white plastic basket full of what had previously been organized items but had sort of become a "catch-all". Small plastic drawer full of baby first aid items I no longer needed (seriously, who needs THREE aspirators??), and the red bag is my travel toiletry bag.

BOTTOM: But the bottom of the linen closet was the worst. Plastic bags taking over, on top of that a cooler bag, several more cooler bags behind that & behind everything, a box full of paper bags, bubble wrap, & bubble mailers to reuse. There was also a hair dryer & hair straightener in there somewhere...

Getting started...

1.) First step was to clear out the personal care products, medicines, first aid items, etc & sort them. Don't forget to check expiration dates. I try to donate items that I'm not going to use before their expiration date but I don't always get to them in time... Keep in mind that a product is not rendered useless one day after the expiration date, however, if you're like me and you don't use medicine much, you're likely to have many products on hand that may be several years old that have just been used once or twice, if that.

First aid items for itchiness...

Homeopathic remedies, cough drops,

medicine, etc.

First aid products...

My husband's items...

Skin care solutions: aloe, witch hazel, bug spray, Tiger Balm, sunscreen, moisturizers.

This is a happy sight. An empty shelf. Clean, after being wiped down with a vinegar & water solution.

I emptied out the bottom of the linen closet & swept it. Sorted the plastic bags & re-organized the box of paper bags, bubble, wrap, & bubble mailers (to reuse). Set everything else aside to reorganize later.

To cut down on dead space in the closet, it was worth it to take the time to remove many of the products from their boxes. Sometimes the inserts have coupons so it's worth it to check them. I wanted to keep some of the inserts with their medications (not all medications have complete instructions on the bottle) so I taped them.

Going through the expired items, I sorted the paperboard, paper, trash, & plastic.

TOP SHELF: The top shelf is DONE! And for free. I had the basket already. Cooler bags in the basket, beach blankets to the right.

SECOND SHELF:

I moved the towels up one shelf. From left to right: hand towels, bath towels, bath mats.

THIRD SHELF:

DONE. The two bottom drawers cost $9.99 each. The plastic container with no lid on the left holds all of our painkillers & supplements - the supplements had previously been in our kitchen so I was able to free up that space out in our cabinet. The plastic drawer on the left holds my husbands items. On the right, top to bottom: the basket holds two 7-day travel pill containers. If we ever get ambitious enough to start taking supplements again, we'll be able to get to them easily. Under the basket, the plastic drawer holds the kids medicines - I already had this drawer set so it was FREE. And the bottom plastic drawer holds my items - this was a new drawer, $9.99. To the left of everything are the hair clippers & my husbands travel toiletry bag & to the right of everything is my red travel toiletry bag.

FOURTH SHELF:

I already had the plastic basket so that was free. It holds extra band-aids, q-tips, my Christmas soaps in bags, hair care items, etc. The two plastic drawers each are new & cost $9.99 a piece. The one on the left holds first air products & the one on the right holds cold care remedies.

BOTTOM: The box is reorganized with paper bags, bubble wrap, & bubble mailers. In front of that is the fire extinguisher (easy to get to), the first aid kit (easy to get to), & the toilet paper (easy to get to - especially for my daughter).

DONE! :)